E.P.S. PERSONNEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 January 1943, Page 2

E.P.S. PERSONNEL

COMPULSORY TRAINING PROPOSAL. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The report from Christchurch that Mr K. L. Usmar, director of. E.P.S. training, had indicated to the New / Zealand Council of the Royal Lifesaving Society that all E.P.S. personnel would have to undergo two hours’ compulsory training each week, was referred to yesterday by the Minister of Civil Defence, Mr Wilson. He stated that he had received an ekplanation from Mr Usmar, who will direct civil defence training, that he had made no official or unofficial communication to the Life-saving Society mentioning the intention of requiring E.P.S. personnel to devote two hours weekly to training. Mr Usmar, added the Minister, recalled writing a personal letter to someone associated with life-saving, giving the opinion that certain training should be undertaken by civil defence personnel, but this was writteii last October, before his appointment to the department. Mr Wilson added that ethe opening course of training for wardens from various districts in the Dominion will commence in Wellington on February 1, and that details of the proposed scheme will then be made public. “As a Government servant I anl making no statement at all,” said Mr Usmar when questioned regarding the Christchurch report. The chief executive officer of the Wellington E.P.S., Mr F. R. Redpath, stated that he had so far received no instruction from the national headquarters of the organisation fixing a minimum weekly period of training for members of the E.P.S.