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Hokitika Guardian, 29 July 1920, Page 2

To-mobhow evening tin* citizens of tlie district, town and country, are to be afforded the opportunity of combining to assist the province to progress. It is not, as is usually tlie ease, a matter of relying solely on their own .Ob’ls. for there is the opening of an alliance with the people of Canterbury where a live Progress League, is already in being. Th idea is that' Westland shall he included as part of the larger dis iriot, and have the benefit of the influential support from that quarter. It is a rare opportunity for the people to bestir themselves and b.v association with Canterbury seek for the general advancement of the district. The time is not very far removed, comparatively sneaking, when the two sides of the Island will be linked by rail. A special intimacy will then grow up. for the places will have so much in common. Tt would he well to anticipate that period, and bv association now seek to derive some of the benefits by a closer association with the important and influential district across tlie ranges. Tlie

occasion is one that should he eagerly availed of, and all interested in the advancement of Westland—and who is

not —should attend and by their presence countenance a move destined to work great good for the place at large. The meeting is fixed for 8 o’clock and the Town Hall should be crowded to overflowing if the folk are in earnest to advance Westland. When receiving the freedom of the City of Loudon last .Tune, Earl Haig ad vocatcd the need of “a strong citizen army,” and this need has been endorsed by his Majesty the King, who, in his address to the Lords Lieutenant, the fiord Mayors, and the laird Provosts of Great Britain, stated that “the formation of a volunteer army is indispensable to the freedom and safety of the nation.” The noble exploits and heroism of the original Territorial Army are too well known to need record here ; the facts that over a million Territorial soldiers fought overseas and that there

was no theatre of war into which Bntis Teritorial Forces did not penetrate speak for themselves. In reconstruettish Territorial Forces did not penetrate has decided to remodel it on the experience gained in the war, to .adopt it to

the needs of the Umpire, and to equip it in the best possible manner; in other words, to make it n force strong enough

to enable, the Regular Army to move about the Empire, as occasions arise, to secure its frontiers, and to maintain | peace and order within them. One of the main points of difference between the new and the old Territorial Forces is that the former will not be used for “feeding” Regular battalions. “Comradeship” will he the strongest tie between the Regular and the new Territorial same comradeship that enabled them to overcome a common (enemy and emerge covered with glory, from the recent conflict. As .liis Majesty stated, now that the war has been fought and won, there is naturally a sense of exhaustion and apathy among the .nation, and the task of raising sufficient numliers for the Territorial Force will accordingly be no easy one. It falls, therefore, on all employers of labour —in factory, workshop or office—to do everything in their rower to assist those who desire to join the- Force by granting, wherever possible, extra holidays and such like facilities. Much lias certainly been done, says an Eng-

lish journal, but much more needs to bo done if the new Territorial Army is to be any thong more than a name. No more valuable proof of our peaceful strength or of the soundness of our national life and character could he given to the world than the creation of such an Army by purely voluntary methods at such n time.