Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1943. THE AIR TRAINING CORPS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1943. THE AIR TRAINING CORPS.

PEOPLE in this district are about to have an exceptional opportunity of making themselves familiar ■with the activities of the Air Training Corps—activities which appear to be particularly well devised and directed. On the occasion 01. the coming visit of the Mobile Instructional Unit an interesting assembly of aircraft working units, weapons, etc., all desired information will be given to lads who may be thinking ol joining the corps and to their parents.

While the primary object of the Air Training Corps, as its name implies, is to help in maintaining an adequate How 01. selected and prepared recruits into the Royal New Zealand Air Force, there is no question of seeking to obtain these recruits by anv kind of barnstorming rush, bhilry into both the Air Training Corps and the Air Force is voluntary. Lads joining the Air Training Corps at the age ol' Ki or over must have the consent of their parents. Tin* same consent is required in the case of those who elect, at the age of IS, to join the Air Force. Lads entering the Air Training Corps are not thereby committed to joining the Air Force.

The organisation of the Air Training Corps provides not only for training. but tor the testing in all necessary detail of the'aptitudes, ability and inclinations of those who join its ranks. Apart from the machinery of selection thus provided, each Cadet has a full opportunity of determining for himself, under the guidance and direclion of his parents, whether he wishes eventually to join the Air Force for flying or ground staff duty.

It was emphasised the other day by the commander of the Wellington Wing of the Air Training Corps, Flight Lieutenant Stedman, that in addition to getting specialised training, cadets continue their general and cultural education and that the aim is to make them better citizens and to inculcate self-discipline. More will be heard on the subject of the aims and methods of the Air Training Corps at a public meeting in Masterton this evening at which the commandant of the corps, Wing Commander G. A. Nicholls, is to be the speaker.

Much as war and its demands dominate the immediate outlook, it is clear that the training offered by the Air Training Corps and by the Air Force, itself, has, in great part at least, a value that will endure, when the war is over and done with. This does not relate only to the fact that there is every reasonable assurance of a great expansion of civil aviation after the war. In addition there is much in the working principles and methods of the Air Training Corps which is capable of wide application. A well-considered combination of cultural education and specialised training appears to be as promising and helpful an introduction as could be devised to any department of working life.