Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1942. MANNING THE HOME GUARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1942. MANNING THE HOME GUARD

JT is easy to agree with (lie Minister of National Service (Mr Semple) that the present position as between the E.P.S. and the Home Guard is unsatisfactory and needs clarification. Indeed, it is something worse than unsatisfactory that there are. in the Minister’s words, “many men of between 60 and 70 years of age in the Home Guard, while hundreds of younger men who should be in the Home Guard were in the. E.P.S. or were standing by.” It is most of all surprising and unsatisfactory that the Government and Parliament have allowed this state of affairs to go so far and to last as long as it has. Even now it is a somewhat halting remedy that is proposed. Before long, Mr Semple stated in Blenheim on Friday evening, regulations would be brought down authorising the transfer ot personnel from one service to the other —i.e., from the. E.P.S. to the Home Guard or vice versa. Since all fit men up to 65 years of age not otherwise accounted for are now enrolled in live E.P.S., the promised regulations will provide a basis for comprehensive action. A more direct method of filling the ranks of the Home Guard with the fittest men available might well, however, have been preferred. From the outset there has been an obvious anomaly in. making service in the Home Guard voluntary, while service in the Expeditionary Force and in the Territorials is compulsory. As the Avar is at present developing, the organisation of the Home Guard in the maximum strength permitted by available arms and equipment evidently has become a necessary and important item of defence preparation. Since the limiting' factor is the quantity of arms and equipment, it is apparent, too, that the fittest men eligible for the Home Guard should be selected for service in its ranks. With -weapons in limited supply, there is no sense in entrusting a rifle or a tommy-gun to a man whose sight is weakened by age, for example, when a man with much better eyesight is available. Since it is perfectly possible that the Home Guard may have to fight in defence of the Dominion, the right thing to do evidently is to draft compulsorily into its ranks as many as are needed of the fittest men who are eligible and available. To an extent, no doubt, the observance of the fitness standard could be and should be modified on account of war experience, or other special qualifications possessed by those serving or offering to serve in the Home Guard. Exemption, on the other hand, might be granted in some instances on account of the men concerned being engaged in valuable and essential, civil work. It is by no means clear that the power of transfer to the Home Guard from the E.P.S., now to be taken by regulation, will ensure an orderly and methodical selection of the fittest men available. To that extent the policy and procedure proposed are definitely open to criticism.