DEFENCE SYSTEM

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1931, Page 7

DEFENCE SYSTEM

•RADICAL CHANGES. COMPULSORY RECRUITING ABANDONED. ' Not since I!)10 have such radical changes been seen in New Zealand’s defence system as in the year 1931. Compulsory military training, which had been in force in the Dominion for twenty-one years, was suspended in 1930 and this year it was abandoned, being replaced by a system of voluntary enlistment. The financial state of the Dominion caused a severe reduction to be made in the permanent forces at the end ,oI last year ■ and this branch was completely reorganised. Major-General R. Young, C. 8., D. 5.0., who had been General Officer Commanding for six years retired last March, his request for permission to leave in company with the men who had been retrenched being refused by the Government. Brigadier W. H. Sinclair-Burgesg, who had been Chief Staff Officer to General 'Voting, was promoted to the rank of major-general and took charge or the New Zealand Divisin on April 1. In the Southern Command, Brigadeat* Mi Mi Gitrd’ner officer commanding, and Lieutenant-Colonel R. Bi Smythe, Chief Staff Officer, retired; and Lieutenant-Colonel S. C. P. Nicdolls was appointed to take charge. Several of the senior non-commission-ed officers of the command also left the service on pensions. RE-ORGANISATION. The first duty falling to General Sinclair-Burgess was to re-organise tlie whole of the permanent and territorial forces . The strength of the New Zealand Division was reduced from its peace-time total of 18,000 men to a strength of 10,000. This meant a corresponding reduction in the strength of all units. The organisation as in force ;n .the days oi compulsory training was retained with the exception that three batteries el artillery, Hamilton, Napier, and Invercargill were eliminated. The twelve infantry regiments' were divided into two classes, those in populous areas and those in the rural districts, the strengths of the later being smaller that those in the cites. With the exception of cadet companies belonging to secondary schools, all cadet training is abolished, the exception being cadet units not exceeding 20 per cent, of the establishment of territorial, units, might be established to provide a source oi supply to the territorial unit. All night-parading cadet battalions had officers seconded front the infantry regiments. With tile abolition bi cadet training, there tvas a surplus of officers for in almost every territorial unit, every officer had been carrying on his training during the period that the compulsory system had been suspended. However, arrangements were made to enable the surplus officers to continue their training, they being absorbed into the ordinary units as vacancies occurred. . HIGHLY EFFICIENT. In the six months that the. new territorial force has been in existence, about half the number of men required have been recruited, a position which is considered satisfactory, as only men of the best type are being accepted. The units have already reached a high standard of efficiency and the credit is due to the officers and non-commissioned officers of the old force who continued their work during the year’s suspension and were thus adequately equipped to take their place as leaders in the new army. The compulsory system- had served its purpose. It enabled the Dominion to despatch the Main Body in 1914 in quick time and made it possible for Samoa to be occupied witlr.n a few weeks of the outbreak of the war. with the adoption of a different point of view on the part of the public after it had realised the awful consequences of war, antagonism to the idea of compulsory training grew. Financr.nl consideration also entered into the question and so compulsion went and in its stead came the voluntary system.