CANADIAN ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1943, Page 7

CANADIAN ARMY

HOME STRENGTH REDUCED IMPROVED STRATEGIC POSITION OTTAWA, September 14. The Minister of National Defence. Colonel J. L. Ralston, has announced that a plan has been approved for the reorganisation of the Canadian Army in Canada, under which the Seventh and Eighth Division now on duty in Canada will be disbanded and the Sixth Division partially disbanded. In substitution there will be certain new formations with a much smaller total establishment. The plan will result in a reduction in the number of troops in Canada required to carry out operational tasks. It also will have consequential effects in reducing the number of personnel required for servicing operational troops. The plan is made possible by the improved strategic position on both coasts of Canada resulting from the eviction of the Japanese from the Aleutians, military victories in the Mediterranean, Russian successes *“and the striking improvement in anti-submarine activities in the Atlantic. The scheme will involve the readjustment downward of local defences on both the east and west coasts. Also it provides for the organisation of a training brigade group in eastern Canada io afford reinforcements an additional phase of advanced training before they proceed overseas. The general result will be to provide a reduced, but thoroughly efficient body of l operational troops/ in Canada, to introduce an additional phase of advanced training which will be given to reinforcements before they proceed overseas, and to release a considerable number of lower category personnel who will thus be enabled to take up civilian occupations and supplement available manpower.