NATIONAL SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 March 1942, Page 2

NATIONAL SERVICE

WEAKNESSES OF REGULATIONS. HOME GUARD AND E.P.S. The ' difficulties under which the Home Guard is operating, owing to weaknesses in the regulations, are brought under notice by the company commander of a Masterton unit, who urges that the whole position should be reviewed. Although it is compulsory for men to join the Home Guard or the E.P.S., he states, there is no provision to compel attendance at parades. In consequence, he finds that not more than fifty per cent of the Home Guard attend some of the parades and what work is to be done is almost invariably carried out by the willing members. Another weakness, he states, is the method of selecting men for the duty allotted to them. He asserts that this is not being carried out to the best advantage. As a case in point he has heard of a butcher, whose calling naturally places him with the supplies section of the E.P.S., posted to warden’s duty. In other instances, young men have been appointed wardens, whereas this duty can be done by the older men of the community, leaving the younger ones for a more active sphere of operations. The whole system, he points out, is in need of overhaul and the weaknesses he mentions remedied, if the best use is to be made of the manpower available.