TROOPS PRAISED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20119, 13 December 1939, Page 7

TROOPS PRAISED

COMPULSORY TRAINING OPINIONS OF MR. COATES Confidence that the soldiers of the Special Force are just as good as those who served with the First New Zealand Division in the Great War was expressed by the Rt. H.on. J. G. Coates, M.P., in an address to Auckland business men. Mr. Coates said the men were keen and healthy and had all the New Zeaander’s traditional initiative. ■Mr. Coates pressed the need for universal military training. He referred to the poor. response to the call for recruits for the second 7 echelon, and said the Only way of ensiiring the required number of men for the Special Force and its reinforcements was to have compulsory training in the territorial forces. "Ail men from 18 to, say 25 or 26, of even a few years older, and all yt»ung women, too, for they will also have tHelf part§ to play, should havi to iihdergb training,’’ he said. ' - Mr;; Coatfes said he was not urging conscription at the present stage, although that must seem inevitable to many people if the voluntary systeih was not satisfactory. He also referred to the appointment of Major-General B. C. Freyberg, V.C.,. to the command of the Special"’Forces overseas. Mr. Coates had received a letter from him in which he expressed his great. pleasure at _ again being , associated with New Zealand troops. Mr. Coates impressed the need for co-of&ration between all Sections and classes of the people, so that the country’s war effort would be 100 per cent effective.