NZ needs you says brigadier

NEW PLYMOUTH - New Zealand should establish a form of military training for its youth, according to a senior New Zealand soldier.

Territorial Force adviser Brigadier Tim Brewer made the call while speaking at the New Plymouth cenotaph service for the compulsory military training national reunion yesterday.

"I'm not advocating returning to compulsory military training, but I believe more can be done in voluntary military service," he said.

Brigadier Brewer believed New Zealand society could benefit from military training.

With the recent political unrest in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and East Timor, the values and lessons of military training would again be "written on the blackboard of history for all of New Zealand to read."

"The world is not a safe place. We are a free people, but there is a price to be paid for remaining free. Part of that price is that we have to be prepared to defend that freedom."

He said a small country such as New Zealand, which had a limited fulltime military service, had to involve citizen soldiers.

- NZPA

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