MILITARY TRAINING

Grey River Argus, 19 April 1911, Page 6

MILITARY TRAINING

♦ ■ AN EXPLANATION. I SCOUTS AND CADETS. (By Telegraph —Per Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, April 19. Major General Godley, general officer commanding the N.Z Forces, states there' seems to be an impression ~in some quarters that training in boy scouts, or boy scout cadets, can take the place of training in senior cadets. This impression is erroneous and should be removed by all concerned with the boy scout organisation. The position is that in order to assist the boy scout movemen the Defence Act nas sanctioned the incorporation of boy scout units, in the organisation of senior cadets who .may be called boy scout cadets and the military authorities are accordingly prepared to accept in the senior cadets, companies or "smaller units of Boy scouts. By law every youth between the ages or 14 and 18 must be a senior cadet. Having become a senior cadet,' there is then no objection on the part of the- military authorities to his also being a boy scout should he so desire. In fact General Godley and the military authorities are thoroughly in sympathy with the boy scout move-, ment and General Godley is vice-pre-sident of the boy scouts in the Dominion but it is to be distinctly understood that every boy between 14 and 18 must be a senior cadet and that in case ol 'tnose who' are boy scouts, he must! be a senior cadet hrst and a boy scout or boy scout cadet afterwards. ' There also seems to be a further misapprehension that it is not necessary for boys now belonging to boy scouts or boy scout cadets to register themselves as senior cadets. This is wrong"*.' Every boy between the ages of 14 and 18, whether a boy scout or not has, by law» to nil in a registration ioitu ana post it to the nearest area-sergt-major in accordance \vtth the military training- notice lately issued, from the conditions, of which boy scouts are no more exempt than any other class of the community. As regards the training of boy scouts in the senior cadet organisation in which they will be incorporat ed as boy scout cadets, they will in the first instance have to perform the drills, etc as laid down by law and regulation for all senior cadets (i.e. all youths in the Dominion between 14 and 18) having done that they then will be free to do any special boy scout work that they please. As a matter of fact a good deal of thesenior training will be on the same lines -as that now done by the boy scouts and as. has been explained the boy scouts will be given facilities for doing- their senior cadet training in units composed entirely of boy scouts and the military authorities will be glad to receive from the head of the Doy scout movement any proposals for the formation of boy scout companies or smaller units. It is hoped that in order to help the military authorities and avoid a great rush at the last moment, all youths. between 14 and 18, belonging to the boy scouts will procure regulation forms from the post office fill them in and send them to the nearest area sergt-Major as soon as possible. lUolonel ,Cossgrove has this article and quite understands and agrees with the position. In an article published in the Lyttelton Times some little time ago, he said, "The decision of a fc'oy scout to become a cadet in the first instance and tfien [become a boy scout, is misleading as any boy scouts and boy scout cadets between the ages of 14 and 18 are by law included in the senior cadets." ,