NEW ZEALAND'S HOME GUARD

Southland Times, Issue 24233, 17 September 1940, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S HOME GUARD

“Full Steam Ahead” This Week

ENROLMENT FORMS TO BE ISSUED

“Full steam ahead” will be the signal | for the Home Guard this week, acI cording to information released at | Christchurch by the Minister of Nai tional Service (the Hon. R. Semple). Mr Semple said that Major-General R. Young, Dominion commander of the Guard, was now selecting his area officers, whose names would probably be announced this week. In addition, enrolment forms would be issued this week, and then the whole machine would start to develop. Without a let-up, the Minister has been busy all over New Zealand, furthering the formation of the Guard, and his lightning tour was completed at Palmerston North on Thursday. “Every local body in New Zealand has been contacted,” Mr Semple said, “and many meetings have been addressed. The Hon. D. Wilson addressed some meetings in the North Island, and I have done the rest of the Dominion in both islands.

AN INSPIRATION j “The local bodies have unanimously j accepted the responsibility of enrolling members of the Guard in their respective districts, and the meetings I have addressed have been full of enthusiasm and ample evidence of the burning desire of the people to do something at this time. As a matter of fact the attitude of the local body members has been an inspiration, and I am confident that the work of the Guards will develop to the point where they will be of wonderful assistance in helping to defend this country if trouble should de-, velop. “In my opinion world conditions are such that it is the duty of every New Zealander in a position to help to defend his country to get into the Home Guard. There are 300,000 men in the country who can help and they should be an inspiration to the public, whom they will be organized to protect.

PROTECTION OF HOMES “All we are asking them to do is to protect their, own homes and their oWn liberties if trouble should come, and it is no use waiting until it is too late. “I have made a special appeal to all sections of the community to get into the organization and make it a force to be reckoned with. The Home Guard in Britain is an inspiration, and gives the people of Britain greater confidence in the period through which they are passing, and Australia is moving along the same lines in following the example of Britain and New Zealand by forming a Home Guard. “It is just a question of asking everybody to contribute his quota to protect their liberty and lives and the liberty and lives of their children, and I cannot imagine anyone refusing to pull his weight in an organization of this type, which is purely for defence purposes.”