CITY RECRUITING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2888, 28 September 1916, Page 6

CITY RECRUITING

THE RECENT DISPUTE 'STATEMENT BY COLONEL TATE POSITION EXPLAINED .'. !A statement concerning the dispute which has arisen between tho City Recruiting Committee, the chief execu- ' tivo officer of which is Captain Barclay, and the Defenco authorities, was made to a. Dominion reporter yesterday by Colonel Tate, Adjutant-General. "The function of tho Recruiting Committeo is' to get men undor tho voluntary system,' and to hand them ovor to the Defence authorities to bo turned into soldiers," said Colonel Tate.- "The Defenco authorities t do not actually get recruits. Under tho , compulsory system the Defence Depart- , ment may get them by going and taking them. 'Which of the two systems is to operate it is for the community jto' say. The Military Service Act creates a certain change of system, and provides machinery for applying compulsion.. Voluntary enlistment; howiever, runs just a"s before, >and compulsion is not applied until a shortage of '. Voluntary makos 'it necessary. '•Thero is no change in the relationship 'of recruiting committees to the_ Defence Department. Tho committees will, if they oan produce voluntary recruits, and will hand them over to the • Defence Department, just as they did ■before. There is no reason why tho jcommittces should not do all that they (did before. What they did before >as to got "tho recruit, have him medically and dentally examined, and fill ; !up his papers. They did not administer the oath to him. They handed 'him over to the military authorities, land the oath was administered in camp. ■ Under the new system.. the 'oath is administered on tho spot.

'. . "Tho Crown Law Office has ruled .."that only officers of the Defence Forces can administer the oath. Ono day '.-■- last week the Commandant and myself .. paid a visit to tho Mayor to discuss the new situation. Wo had in view the_fact that as all the men at., present . Tegistored. a very considerable number, would have to be sworn in under ... .the now arrangement, it'would" be pro- .''.'. ferablo to have a central place to call them up to, father than to call them " -to Buckle Street. We intended to -''ask tho Mayor to give some facilities .- Sat the Town Hall—a room in whioh . ; an officer could be placed to deal with these registered men, and also to deal, ".. 'so'far as tho oath of allegianco went, "with any new voluntary recruits which Captain Barclay's committee.might obtain: When the matter was explain- . «d to Mr. Luke, he was quite in accord with everything we proposed, and .was quite ready to offer tho fullest ■ /facilities to enable the recruiting part -• of the local Dofonce office to bo established at .the Town Hall with all its • ' records and files. After this general •■.; .'discussion of, tho matter, tho Com- .[., mandant left, and I remained to dis- '■'•-■ Cuss details with Mr. Luke. The pro. -: posal was that the committee should ■V carry on its work as it . had done, iand ttiat an officer of the Defence ■'" jForoea should occupy another office in/ :'the Town Hall, to whom the recruits, 5 as the committee obtained them, would, ' after naedical examination, he passed On for the final pot of swearing' in, the payment of the os. fee, and the granting of leave until the date on which tney were duo to ho called up. Captain Barclay was subsequently : -called in, and the matter was discußsed again with him, but ho disapproved ..•' of the proposition. Mr. Luko did his best to persuade him to accede to the :.. proposal, Which, effected no reduction ■'.'. in the previous duties of tho commits J tee, but merely provided for the oath - of allegiance being taken before the man left the building, and so obviat- "' ing the possibility of the man being "lost. .Captain Barclay, contested the ,'correctness of the Crown Law officers' interpretation of tho law, and would consent to nothing but that he should do everything including tho administering of the oath. This, was legally Jmposslble. It was, suggested during jihe conference thai; Captain Barclay might he made an officer of the Defence Forces, so that he could bo ap- .;,.- pointed to administer the oath, but ho ..,._.refnsed this strenuously. There was . not the slightest heat or friction in ~., the interview which lasted for a, considerablo time, hut Captain ■ Barclay -.could not be. moved from the definite position that he took up-rthafc if he could, not administer the oath, which, hy the way, he has never done, he would have nothing more to do with the business, and would close the office on Saturday. This he did. t . "The duty of the officer who administers the oath is also to disburse recruits' pay, wh'ich may he 65., or a larger x sum, according to the time occupied in getting to the recruiting office. This function can obviously only be .performed by an officer of the De- .-'.-■ partniont, who is under strict control.- • Payment is made bv warrant which :;■] the officer signs', and if persons who ~ arc not officers of the Defence Forces ... were authorised to administer oaths, :,'e "there still would be tho necessity for '..;'• nn officer to be on hand to nav over ;/■ the money.and tnke responsibility for .£jt. This responsibility is. considerable ;.; —far too big to bo taken bv anv man ;■ not in receipt of pay from the Depart- ;;, ment. The officers who sign these war- :. rants are alive to their responsibility h 'They know that moneys lost by their ■ mistakes will" be charged against their -■pay." ;; TERMS OF THE ACT. , : The Defence Minister, in the course .. of a few remarks on the subject, .;-. .stressed-the point that neither tho Dev fence Minister nor the Defence Dopart- ■■■■' ment had any legal power to authorise ' any person not a military officer to ' administer the oath of allegiance. The words of the Expeditionary Forces Act .. of 1915 were: "Such oath shall be taken before an officer of the Defence • -' Forces, authorised in that behalf by ■ the Commandant." Consequently, it was impossible for Captain Barclay to be authorised to administer tlie •;•; oath. In the Act of 1916 a clause was .'.. inserted giving power to the Comman- ... -riant to authorise other persons to witness the attestation of recruits, but ■;. tho Crown Law Offico had ruled that this did not affect in any way tho pro- ; vision in the 1915 Act that only com- ' missioned officers could administer the '" oath to recruits. THE ACTUAL PROPOSALS. NO INTERFERENCE. Tho proposal made to Captain Bar- ' clay was that ho and his assistants . should continue to do everything that they had done before, and in exactly tho same way. All that would have been different would have been in the handling of recruits after ho.had dono ■ 'everything tho law allowed him to do for them. The procedure would havo ; been something like this: —Instead of ■: turning the man free to go about his - business when he was duly registered, ; Captain Barclay would have communi- ;; cated with tho other office in which tho •'■' military officer was established, and the man would have been taken away !: to this office to swear allegiance, and ' receive his pay and his leave pass. It .; would havo been arranged that Captain ...Barclay could communicate with the . other office which is downstairs (his being on the first floor), hy pressing an , electric bell button, and an orderly or ' a messenger would havo come up to

take the recruit away to be dealt with finally. Tho cxistenco of tho office downBtiiirs would not in any way have affected the work of Captain Barclay. It may bo pointed out that tho Wellington Recruiting Conimitteo is in a very different position from that of most other recruiting conimifcfeos. In Wellington tho recruiting committee consists in effect of Captain Barclay and ono or two gontlomen who regularly assist him in his self-imposed continuous task of registering recruits wlio offer. They deal only with the mon who come to their office. teo has no organisation for persuading men to como to the office. If a man docs not come to them tho work of the coinmitteo does not touch him. In Christehurch and elsewhere the recniiting committeo not onlv receives men who come of their own initiative, but ondeavonrs to bring men to tho office. Tho term recruiting committee as applied to Captain Barclay's organisation is something of a misnomer. Captain Barclay has done a vast amount of very valuable work, but he has had tho assistance only of one or two regular associates. Ho Ims never been supported by any committee. All thatf the City Council has over done for him has been.to provide him with an office. The service formerly rendered by Captain Barclay will now be rendered by a Defence officer and his staff. They are in the Town Hall as Captain Barclay was, and they will do the same work, discharging also certain other duties which tho Statute did not permit to be delegated to any civilian.