HOME DEFENCE UNITS

Southland Times, Issue 24231, 14 September 1940, Page 6

HOME DEFENCE UNITS

PROVIDING COMFORTS FOR MEMBERS

SOUTHLAND TERRITORIAL ASSOCIATOIN

“With the organization of home defence units the.work of the Southland Territorial Force Association has expanded considerably, and depending as it does mainly on subscriptions of 2/6 from members for its income, the association will have increasing difficulty in providing the necessary comforts for a greatly increased home defence army,” said the president of the association (Mi- C. B. Tapley) in a statement yesterday.

A company of returned soldiers of 130 men was in hard training in Invercargill. For the past two months Territorial N.C.O.’s had been in training at Addington and the main body of Territorials would go into camp next month. Comforts for these home defence units were being provided through the association, which had in the past year spent £lOO in comforts for the Territorials alone.

Trie bulk of the money was distributed wriile the men were in camp, said Mr Tapley. The Territorial training was formerly carried out with 26 night parades and one week’s camp during the year. It was now done with three months’ camp training and one night parade a week, and the demands on the association’s funds would be increased accordingly. In illustration of the enthusiasm among the men in the home defence units, Mr Tapley said that among the returned soldiers in training were men from Riverton and several outlying districts, including Woodlands, Makarewa and Kennington. As the Government supplied only IJd a mile with a maximum of 3/- for a travelling allowance, these men were doing the training willingly at a loss to themselves. The attendance at the parades had been splendid, he said, and on Thursday night out of the 130 men in the returned soldiers company, 116 had attended the parade, and the absence of most of trie others was caused by sickness. . .

Among the comforts which the association provided for home defence units in camp were suppers for the men, the hiring of radios and the arranging of concerts. He trusted, said Mr Tapley, that support would be forthcoming from the public in the future in recognition of the work the association was doing for the men who had the job of home defence. The association’s annual meeting will be held in the Returned Soldiers’ Club rooms on Thursday, September 19.