on his return to egypt, puttick was offered the opportunity to become chief of the general staff, effectively the commander of the new zealand military forces, by the visiting new zealand prime minister, peter fraser. he accepted the role and returned to new zealand in september 1941. puttick's focus was on ensuring the manpower of the 2nzef in north africa was adequately maintained by reinforcements. in the face of the increasing threat of the japanese empire in the pacific, he also put considerable effort into improving new zealand's defences. after the japanese entered the war, he considered the actual threat of invasion to be minimal but continued to encourage improvements in home defence as a means of boosting morale.