Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1942. YOUTH AND THE WAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1942. YOUTH AND THE WAR.

: AN incomplete but informative survey made by vocational guidance officers throughout tide North .Island has thrown new light on the serious problem for the future that is developing out of so many boys leaving school, and being drafted into military camps ■without taking up any occupation, while others are debarred from entering on the careers for 'which they are best fitted because they are approaching military age. -On this subject the Wellington vocational guidance officer, Mr A. A. Kirk, has said that: — Those who have entered camp without any civilian occupation will provide the greatest problem in rehabilitation, quite unlike anything faced after the last war. He added that he thought it would be extremely difficult for these young soldiers to settle down in civilian life, especially as there was no system of army education to bridge the gap.” There would also be a rehabilitation problem for 'women. The total problem raised is of somewhat staggering proportions and at. the same time is many-sided. Obviously no general and simple solution can be devised. There is no escape from the necessity for the time being of drafting large numbers of young people of- both sexes into emergency and specialised service and employment which for the most part ■will end with the war. If serious future trouble is to be averted everything possible must be done in good time by measures of education, special training and in other ways to prepare for the eventual e demobilisation of these young people. No doubt the greatest task of all in this category will be that of the eventual re-establishment in civil life of young men who have spent in the Army a period perhaps of some years in which normally they would have been studying for a profession, learning a trade or qualifying for some other civil occupation. Account has to be taken also, however, of other groups and sections, notably the Air Force. Even ■when allowance is made for the tremendous expansion of civil aviation to be expected after the war, it is likely that orderly and methodical provision will have to be made eventually for the re-establishment in civil life of large numbers of young airmen. As regards lads drafted at the age of eighteen into the Territorial Force and not eligible for some years for overseas service, it should be possible to devise speedily schemes of training which will at least greatly minimise the handicap imposed on. them on their return to civil life. Educational courses on the most efficient basis that is practicable most certainly should be established in Army camps and there is no obvious reason why military and industrial and other training should not be carried on side by side under a co-ordinated arrangement.

For instance, lads of military age might be paired, one of the two at any given time to be undergoing military training and the other filling an industrial or other civil post. At suitable intervals they would change places. Under a plan of this kind both lads would undergo military training, and both in an emergency would be available for Army service, but- both in addition would be getting training and experience in a civil occupation.

lii the ultimate treatment of the problem of re-establishing members of the fighting forces in civil life, intensive schemes of industrial and other training, with a shortening of apprenticeship courses, no doubt will take an important place. Similar measures may be of great value to girls whose normal, preparation for civil life has been interrupted or upset. It is certainly desirable, however, that the abrupt break in educational, and other training should as far as possible be modified, and there does not seem to be any doubt that this is practicable in the case of lads drafted into the Territorial Force.

Military organisation evidently must not be neglected or hampered in these critical and dangerous days, but neither should a. wasteful and improvident use of manpower be tolerated any more in the Army than in other walks of life. The possibility of co-ordinating military training with industrial and other training, where the youth of the Dominion is concerned, most certainly is one that should be examined and considered dispassionately by the Government, and Parliament.