ENROLLING THE RESERVE

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

ENROLLING THE RESERVE

* - '• THE FIRST BALLOT. The Government Statistician has no doubt now that his task of enrolling the Expeditionary Force will be sufficiently well in hand by the end of October to permit of a conscription ballot being taken then. Thero is no longer" very much doubt that such a, ballot will be necessary. The roll at that date will be by no means faultless. From most points of viow its serious defect will be the absence from it of a number of names that it should contain. It is impossible now to hazard an estimate of what that number will be; but from the point of view of the officers conducting the ballot, a still more embarrassing feature of the roll will be tho presence of hosts of names that bought not to be there. Everybody, he he halt, lame, or blind, must enrol. Many maimed and otherwise obviously unfit men are enrolled. At prosent all that the enrolling officer knows is that a certain , of Auckland,, who is of military age, says ho is blind, or that , of somewhere else, says ho has only one leg. It would not be safe for the Statistician to act always on the particulars in tho schedules, and discharge these names from the roll. Inquiry will have to he made into these cases, and if the particulars are proved to ho correct the Commandant and the Statistician have power to delete the names. Meantime tho roll remains "s*uffed." It cannot possibly be purged before the/first ballot, and perhaps not before the second. The percentage of unfits will be very high. It may even be necessary to ballot for 4000 men to be sure' of getting 2000 fit to servo.