Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1942 THE HOME GUARD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 14 October 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1942 THE HOME GUARD

i THE Home Guard is slowly shed- j | ding the imperfections of immatur-j ity. Added to the progressive im-! provement already taking place the changes announced to-day by the Government will remove some more! of the disabilities which Guardsmen have suffered—not always in silence. If they do not go as far as many would like they are substantial advances on paper and represent as j much as the Government feels jus- | tilled 1 in doing considering the role j of the Guard as a fighting unit and 1 | bearing in mind our other and more ! urgent war commitments. Many of ; the shortcomings of the Home Guard I were inseparable from the growing I pains of a new organisation established in a hurry at a time of crisis: when there was a fog in the official j ! mind as to what its place in our de-j fence plan was to be. Most of the' deficiencies in arms and equipment; date back to the period of New Zealand’s nakedness in defence. Time-J ly assistance from abroad plus self-: help have allowed some of these to j be remedied as the months wore on ( and the enemy mercifully did not; come. Rough edges in organisation have been slowly if somewhat pain-, fully knocked off. The Committee! : of Inquiry has put its finger on other ' anomalies and weaknesses, most of;' which the Government has under-1, taken to correct. To the serving Guardsman probab-i ly greatest satisfaction will come,! from knowing that a great part of: the Home Guard has been allotted j : a front line role in the defence of j the country alongside the Territorial!. Army. This should impart a sense of reality to training and go far towards removing doubts as to whether he is not wasting his time dur- , ing those precious leisure hours de- ] voted to parades. lie wants service 1 with the Guard to be more than a gesture. The most important de- • cision arising from the report is that • to unify regional control of the Home ; Guard and the Territorial Army. If ‘ these complementary units are to be ( ready to light together they should be trained in co-ordination under a single command so that they can be-' come thoroughly familiar with what j is required of them. Much will depend on the calibre of the men chosen as Zone Commanders. They should; be young, active, experienced, fighting soldiers. Having been assigned a role the next duty is to see that the Guard is properly trained and equipped to fill! it. In uniforming and arms the Minister’s words promise better days for j at least the combatant section of; the Guard. Rifles and ammunition arc likely to be more plentiful. Nothing is more necessary in the train-j ing of a Guardsman than that he', should become proficient in the use j of his rifle. Painfully conscious of! the necessity for conserving ammuni-j lion the army has had a tradition that a man can be taught to shoot without! firing his rifle- That is true to a : very limited extent. Let us hopej that the stage has been reached when ammunition hoarding is not the first consideration in teaching a man to ; shoot. In this we can learn a good I deal from the Russians. j Some dissatisfaction may be felt at j the Government’s decision not to pay j Guardsmen for ordinary parades. To ; do so would throw an extra burden on the War Expenses Account which: has not been budgeted for. Members of the Guard are civilian-sol-diers. Training entails considerable' inconvenience and sacrifice of leisure. It may even impinge on a man’s; daily work, but the Guardsman or-; ; dinarily is not called on to give up ! his civilian occupation, leave home i and go into camp as a full-time sol-! dier. Where he has been he has been put on a Service footing- It is probably true to say that the average Guardsman does not expect pay for what he considers to be a duty. lie is willing to make the attendant sacrifices—small after all compared with what our fighting men overseas are making—provided he can be spared: that sense of frustration which comes, from having to undergo indifferent training with makeshift equipment, or sometimes with none at nil. Bid he is entitled to expect hat be shall not be asked to pay for serving, as many have been doing through bear- | ing their own out-of-pocket expenses. ; The Government could well have made more liberal provision for covering these than is disclosed in the Minister’s statementPart of this difficulty it is intended to overcome by arranging for parades of smaller units, thus reducing travelling expenses. Men out-; side prescribed limits are to undergo' intensive training similar to that!

f given the Territorial Army. Thus is I a sensible provision. Experience ! has shown that intensive training by far the best. In this the majority ; of the men concerned will be farm- : ors. By arranging courses in the offseason they will be able to do more , on the production side and still fulj lit their military obligations. As the situation stands at present the man on the land is engaged in war work second in importance only to that of those in the Services though this not always been realised when appeals for Home Guardsmen arc being considered. The net result of the latest measures should be to enhance the status of the Home Guard, remove or minimise many of its annoying deficiencies, encourage the Guardsman io feel an inner satisfaction from service with his unit and so appreciably improve the Guard a, an organisation on which this Dominion largely relies for repe'bng an inj vader. The kind of spirit, which exl ists within the various zones will depend largely on the knowledge, capacity and zeal of those who are appointed to command them, for their ability and example or their slackness and ignorance will filter down from the top through the ranks.