DEFENCE FORCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 February 1922, Page 5

DEFENCE FORCES.

ECONOMY IN OPERATION, DRASTIC CHANGES MADE LESS EXPENSE THAN IN 1914. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. When the annual vote for the Defence Department was curtailed this year it was inevitable that drastic changes would have to be made to enable the department to live within the allotted vote, which was only a little more than half that of 1914. From information gleaned by the New Zealand Times it is understood that the General Officer Commanding the defence forces has now completed a scheme for the reduction of staffs, and that he has partly out it into operation by notifying a certain number of the staff corps and ordnance officers that their services are no longer required. Only one officer at headquarters, it is stated, has been retired, the others being in various defence districts. The Royal New Zealand Garrison Artillery is also affected,' many of the men in this section of the service being transferred to ordnance. As a further means of economising it is. understood the G.O.C. proposes to effect an amalgamation of some branches of the “A” duties branch (staff organisation, discipline, etc.) to unite with the “G” duties branch (training, military operations, etc., the new department thus formed to be controlled by Lieut.-Colonel Rowles, commandant of the general headquarters school at Trentham, and the “Q” duties (transport, supplies, etc.) to remain as at present. It is rumored that the latter branch 'will be taken over by Lieut.-Colonel Avery who has been undergoing training at a staff college in England, and is shortly expected to return. Ibis amalgamation, together with the retirement of officers, will necessitate a re-shuffling of appointments, and as a natural corollary some ot the senior and probably the junior officers will be transferred to district commands. It is understood that the amended scheme as regards training and camps will not be put into operation until the scheme as a whole is discussed at a conference of officers to be held in Wellington shortly. The vocational training branch is steadily reducing its operations, and the staffs of medical service branches, owing to the transference of the control of hospitals to the Department of Public Health, have been considerably diminished, and the works branch will practically cease its existence this month. It is quite likely that further retrenchment in various directions will be effected, as the money at the command of the department will necessitate a drastic reduction, not only in personnel, but in training and upkeep generally.