RECRUITING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2674, 21 January 1916, Page 8

RECRUITING

POSITION SATISFACTORY BADGES & THE SHIRKER "The eleventh and' twelfth drafts are now quite full," said the Defence Minister yesterday, "and the Defence Department will hand over the recruiting business to the Recruiting Board with every obligation fulfilled.' The Prime Minister said that the Recruiting Board was considering draft circular letters which would be sent out to local bodies, members of Parliament, and other prospective recruiting agents in a day or two. The alphabetical lists of men of military age in every recruiting district would be sent on as soon as they were ready, and they were now in the hands of the Government Printer. Meantime recruiting was going on very satisfactorily. , "I have had an enormous amount of correspondence with members of local bodies and other representative men, offering to assist as soon as the Government is ready to go on with the scheme," said Mr. Massey. "I have also had quite a number of letters from men who are included _ in the 31,000 men recordod in the National Register as unwilling to serve the State in any capacity, civil or military. These men say now that they have changed their opinion, and that they are now willing to serve in any capacity."

A point of some importance was mentioned by the Defence Minister • in reference to the proposed issue of badges to enlisted men. Although instructions have been given that enlistments' are not to be accepted for certain branches of the forces now heavily over-sub-scribed, these instructions are not always obeyed to the letter by every subordinate recruiting officer, and the result is that young men, fit to serve in infantry or any other arm, get their names on the waiting list for Ambulance or Army Service Corps, for which there are men available sufficient for 18 months, or for Artillery, for which there is a fifteen months' supply of men available. "We must have a' washingup of this business before we begin to issuo badges," said Mr. Allen. "I am not going to issue a badge to a man who cannot be called _ up for fifteen months, and who will, in all probability, therefore, not ,be called up at all. To do this would be to afford a very convenient and safe refuge for the shirker, and Tshall never be agreeable to that."

There is quite a lot of talk about people exploiting the soldiers, but there is at least one Wellington business man who has gone out of his way to offer concisions to ."our boys." Mr. A. E. M. Rowland, jeweller, 90 Hanners Street, offers 15 per cent, special discount off all soldiers' requisites, such as wristlet watches, binoculars, etc.—Advt.