PENDING CALL UP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 5, 19 January 1942, Page 5

PENDING CALL UP

NO ADVICE YET

SEPARATE BALLOT FOR OVER

SEAS SERVICE

A separate ballot for tlie calling up of married men for overseas service will be necessary. The January 20 ballot of married men without' children, which is in effect a group call-up of this class of reservists, j.s for home service. It was stated that those called up in this ballot would be posted to camp at once, if of the required standard of litness. Posting is entirely a matter lor the various areas under instructions from district headquarters. It consists in the .allocation of men called up to various units such as artillery, infantry, signal, and so on. As a rule a man isi advised of the unit to which lie has been posted at the time he receives notice to enter camp. In effect, Private is advised that he has been posted to the and is required to attend at on for the purpose of being dispatched to. camp. He is not notified in advance of the unit to which he bad been posted unless it so happens that the situation requires that he be sent to camp al-> most simultaneously with his being posted to a unit. The usual position is that while a man is posted to a unit shortly altei being classed fit for service, he is j not informed of this till such time as he receives his notice to enter camp. The length of time which elapses between a man being posted to a unit by area headquarters and notified to enter camp,, depends entirely on Army manpower requirements. Under normal conditions a reservist entering a Territorial camp is given 14 days' notice. There is no information yet available as to when the January 20 ballotees, who are classed fit, will be required to enter camp. Areas are not yet in possession of this information.

If a man called up requires more time to arrange his affairs than is given in the notice to proceed to camp, the proper procedure, if called for home service, is to appeal to the manpower committee in his district on the ground of hardship, for an extension, of time. Those called up for overseas service must apply to an armed forces appeal board.

It was pointed out that the announcement of the Minister of National Service. Mr Semple, in November, 1941, that man-Led men called up for overseas would not yet normally be required toi enter camp till five or six months after being drawn in the ballot, has now to be viewed in the light of altered circumstances.