MOBILISATION CAMP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1939, Page 9

MOBILISATION CAMP

TO BE ESTABLISHED NEAR AUCKLAND. PROVISION FOR 6000 MEN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 15. Plans are stated to be well advanced for the establishment of a mobilisation camp in the Papakura district. It will accommodate approximately 6000 men, though provision has been made for a considerable increase in this accommodation at very short notice. The Minister of Defence (Mr Jones) said at the weekend that a large site was necessary where electricity, water, and sewerage installations could be made. It would be necessary to erect a number of buildings for the troops, including large kitchens. There would also be an administrative block.

What was required was a mobilisation camp where troops could be quickly concentrated in times of emergency. The Auckland site would complete the mobilisation, plan so far as camps were concerned, three having been decided upon, and two of them, those at Burnham and Trcntham, already being in existence. It was possible that the new camp would be used for training purposes in peace time.

The scheme, it is stated in Auckland is sufficiently advanced for quantities of materials to have been taken out to the site. When operations do begin, it is stated that other Public Works activities in the district will be subordinated to it. The building of tne camp is to be treated as a matter of extreme urgency and workmen may even be drawn from the State housing.

The need for such a mobilisation centre has long been felt by the military authorities in Auckland. No mobilisation plan which they could produce, it is stated, would be complete without the provision of such a centre, where men could be properly and adequately concentrated at need.