HOME GUARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1942, Page 4

HOME GUARD

REPORT BY WAR COUNCIL COMMITTEE

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED. STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF DEFENCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Recommendations of a committee of inquiry of the War Council on the Home Guard, which have been considered by the Government and discussed with Generals Put'tick and Young, were presented in the House of Representatives today by the Minister of Defence (Mr Jones) who made a statement on the matter and expressed appreciation of the importance of the Home Guard in the defence of New Zealand.

Dealing with the main features of the report, Mr Jones said the proposal of the committee that battalions in areas most essential to defence should be given priority had been implemented to the extent of about sixty per cent. .Supplies of ammunition were now very satisfactory and 75,000 uniforms and 83,000 pairs of boots had been issued and stocks of grenades had been increased. The committee recommended. that Home Guard units should be allowed to manufacture their own radio sets, but that could only be undertaken under strict supervision by the Army authorities. The committee’s recommendations regarding payment for parades would be met to some extent by arrangements which would reduce expenses incurred. Matters affecting the organisation of the Home Guard had also been the subject of action and wherever possible transport arrangements would be improved, and in the event of mobilisation any necessary transport would be available from Lines of Communication. Home Guard motor transport could not be made available for widely-separated units and sub-units for training purposes, but parades by smaller units and the consolidated training of men living at a distance would be adopted to ease the position.