Appointment Made

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 2, 25 September 1937, Page 4

Appointment Made

, 8 r r N.Z. DEFENCE "Organisation for Nationai Security" PLANES FOR AIR FORCE (From Our Own Correapondent.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. New Zealand 's policy of defence, froin being Tevealed piecemeal by the Government nowappears to have gone underground in a most unusuAl way. Mystery surrounds everything that is being undertakefi, and the most innocuous questions are answered in & baffling manner. " It is, for instantee, over a month since is was revealed that the Government intended to create a Council of Defence, with the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, as ehairman, and ihe heads of the various services and the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F.' Jones, as its principai members. The secretary to this Council of Defence— -or, as official quarters appear to prefer to call it, the new "Organisation for Nationai Security— was promptly appointed, yet there has been no announcement of this fact; he has been attached temporarily at least, to tho staff of the Prime Minister 's Department. This new official, who will presuinably become the fully-fledged secretary to the Council of Defence as soon as it is legislated into existence, is Major W. G. Stevens, R.N.Z.A. Fdr about four years past the Australian and. New Zealand Governments have exchanged regular dfficers during the camp-training season from January onwards, in order that liaison might be maintained between tlie two parties. Last February the Government approved of a visit of approxiniately three months by Major Stevens to Australia, so that he might attend the training camps of the Australiaa military forces. » Major Stevens has been General Staff officer (Operatiohs and Intelligence) at General Headquarters here; ih othter words, head of the New Zealand Intelligence Service, and is a man of wide experience and outstanding qualities.. He had not long been in Australia wlien he was recalled by the Gcvermuent to take up his ,po.st with the Orguaisation for Nationai Security. It is known also that there has been an exUnsiom of other branches of the Defence service, as might be expected with tlio Government preparing aa important programme; but there has Iwen 110 announcement of . this expansion. l,:or example, a New Zealander, with long experience in the Indian Army, and who took big honours at a staff college in* England, but who recently retired from the service though still young, has been appointed to the growing Air Department. This is Major Cuthbert Free, who has secn service at G.allipoli, iu France, and on the Indian frontier, and who now idls a- position in the department 's administrative side. The Government has also delayed in announcing the type ' of aeroplanes which it is purchasing for defence work. It is perfectly well aware whattypes it desires, and has known for months. It has made arrangements for the purchase of some, but has not disclosa"i the kinds, though it is possible to state that they are Vickcrs Wellington long-range bombers, Bristol Blenheiins (or Bristol Bolingbrokes), which are medium bombers and very fast, and light training machines, probably Airspeed Oxfords.