CALL-UP OF YOUTH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 84, 29 July 1942, Page 5

CALL-UP OF YOUTH

CONCERN EXPRESSED

EFFECT ON INDUSTRY

Some concern about the position which "will arise in New Zealand when the present system of taking youths of 18 into the Army creates a dearth of professional and. skilled tradesmen Avas expressed in a letter received at the last meeting of the Wellington Chamber o'f Commerce from the Wellington branch of the Ncav Zealand Institute of Electricians. The chamber decided to be represented at a conference of parties interested.

The letter said that when a youth was taken into the Army at 18 lifts training was broken. "While we appreciate the necessity our effort towards pursuing the war. to a successful conclusion," it eontinued, "it is felt that it is not in the interests of either the country or the youth that youth should be sacrificed on the altar of Avar. It should: be possible to make Army service voluntary up to the age of 21, and as a safeguard direct all those youths who do not volunteer to become apprentices, in. some profession or trade. We feel that a much more satisfactory effort could ba made by a careful analysis of the requirements in human material, not_ on]}' for the present, but for the future. The Army to a deplorable degree has not been making the best use of the technicians at its disposal, and in lesser degree the same is true of the Air Force and Navy. With increasing mechanisation a nil expansiop the tiniG will come when the call-up of more technicallytrained' personnel will be inescapable and industry comprises the only adequate reservoir. There appears to be no case at present for the withdrawal into the armed forces of more students and apprentices under the age of 21 years."