FULFILLING OUR TASK.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1916, Page 7

FULFILLING OUR TASK.

|! 'AN EVER-IMPROVING ARM'S I INSPIRED BY ENTHUSIASM AND COURAGE. A CONFIDENT OUTLOOK, i '■From the New Zealand point of view the situation scorns to be very satisfactory,'' said the Hon. das. Allen, Minister for Defence, discussing the military aspect of the Dominion's effort to assist the Empire. - "We have fulfilled all our obligations up to date in sending men to the front, we have increased our main units until we now have a full division and a considerable number of [ mounted men in addition, while we have kept up and are keeping up our reinforcements on all these main bodies to the full extent we have been asked to do. We have, in brief, never failed in our obligations. Every reinforcement has gone away in full strength, we have ik 7 our full number in training and in training camps, and have assured our reinforcements for the next four months ahead. So far as quality of men is concerned, I think I may safely say that ' most certainly the quality has not deteriorated, for wc have never abandoned our original policy of not accepting men under 20 years of age. We bavo been enlisting men from 20 to 45 years of age. They are therefore not boys who are going into ortr forces, but young 1 men and mature men. There 'has been no occasion for New Zealand to call upon men of 18 or 19 years .in order to keep up our engagements. WITH REGARD TO THE FUTURE. With regard to.the future, we can, I thin!:, with confidence expect that the supply of men between 20 and 45 of good physique, brave, courageous and willing to accept their share in the j ,p-eat fight going on for our Empire and for will be continue 1 and without fail." Referring to the training side of the question, the Minister said: 'T have no .hesitation in saying that training in every branch has improved. T take first of ajl our officers. It is true that we have not the tame supply of Territorialofficers to draw upon, because so many of them have already gone to the front, but we are making up for this by increasing the amount of training given to 9 officers in the training camps before they leave New Zealand. .The method which has been adopted for some, time' past of training non-commissioned officers in camps specially selected to be trained for officers is working out, in my opinion, very satisfactorily. An officer now to secure his commission before he leaves New Zealand will have to put in somewhere about eleven months' training. "As to N.C.O.'s and men, I am certain that the added experience of the training staff and improvements made from time to time are producing even better results than were available in early stages of the training camps. Take, for instance, the training of men in the Medical Corps. That lias been so organised that now medical officers, medical orderlies and ambulance men all receive training which was not available to them in the early stages, and they go away • therefore much better equipped for work than was possible in the first drafts. And so with the musketry and artillery work. There is no (ailing off; indeed," I believe there, is improvement. "And now," added Mr. Allen, "to sum the whole thing up from the point of view of the outcome of our efforts. I can onlv speak for New Zealand, but New Zealand is supplying io-day all asked for, in quality as good, if not better than, at first, better trained, just as enthusiastic, just as determined to see this war through to the end we all desire. There is, as far as I can judge, every prospect of -this condition of things continuing for some time to come. I do not know what the conditions of our enemies may be, but it seems to me that the Empire, and, I hope, the Allies too, have put into the field a sufficient number of men to secure the end desired. They have adopted the policy that this number of men must never decrease, whatever the casualties may lie. and 'that they must remair until the end this definite body of men sufficient in number to overwhelm our foes right up to the finish of the war. New Zealand is fulfilling its share in this task as far as human foresight can see, and will continue to do this through to the end. Tlie only conclusion man can come to if these are facts, am' they are facts, so fur as 1 can judge, is that the end means success for the arms of Britain and her Allies."