THE TERRITORIALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 312, 27 May 1911, Page 5

THE TERRITORIALS.

THE DENOMINATIONALISM QUESTION. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Wellington, Friday. The Acting-Minister of Defence (Mr. Fowlds) said to a Post reporter this morning: "There seems to be an impression that the Defence Department or the Government is encouraging the formation of denominational companies. That is not so. The idea started originally with the concession that Boy Scout units were to be allowed, and from that it has spread to various organisations and churches suggesting that they may have similar units amongst, their own people in the senior cadets. The fact is we have not in any way encouraged the idea, and under any cir-, cnmstances the officers of such companies could not be appointed by the organisation or church, but must in every case be appointed by the Defence Department. The Minister said that such companies could only be for the senior cadets in large towns. The conditions of the defence scheme were primarily geographical, and the force was territorial. For Territorials any idea of a denominational organisation was quite impossible, and had never been entertained for a moment by the department, as recruits will be drafted into one of the existing companies which are not now and cannot in future be in any sense denominational."