THE RESERVE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2890, 30 September 1916, Page 8

THE RESERVE

PREPARATION OF THE ROLL

FIRST BALLOT NEXT MONTH Applications for certificates of enrolment in the Expeditionary Force Reservo arc still reaching tho Government Statistician from men whoso response to tlio Government's instruction has been laggar'dly. Cards of aclniowledment aro sent out daily, as tho applications arc received, and the distribution :of the certificates will bo begun during tho next fortnight. This work probably will not bo completed until after the middle of November. Tho certificates will be issued in alphabetical order, so that some men will have longer ..to wait than others. Tlio Government Statistician stated yesterday that 182,650 men had applied for cortificatos of enrolment, most of them being already enrolled in tho National Register. . His original estimate of tho number of Reservists (that is, men over twenty years of age and under forty-six years) had been 200,000, so that it would appear on tho face of tho figures that nearly 20,000 mcn'had not applied for certificates. But many of these men had already gone into camp, and ho did not expect that the margin would bo large when all the data had been collected. "I am now getting the rolls purged," said Mr. Malcolm Fraser, "and I am convinced that they will bo pretty complete. The position is that every man of militaiy age is required to be in one of two places—either in the Expeditionary Forco or in the Reserve! Tho question of fitness does not affect his membershp of tho Reserve. When the rolls are completed a few weeks hence I do not think that there will bo many men off them, and immediate steps will bo taken to discover any defaulters. Wo have ample powers for that." The work of tlio Government Statistician has been rendered more difficult by the apparent necessity for an early ballot, owing, to the shortage of voluntary recruits. It has been considered to arrange for the taking of a ballot, if necessary, at the end of next month without waiting-for tho completion of the district rolls, in which the names on the main roll -will bo classified according to residence in the various reoraiting. districts. . Tho Government Statistician is concentrating his attention at the present time on making such a ballot possible, but the rolls for •the recruiting districts, which were gazetted the other day, will bo prepared, and the district quotas of recruits will then be adjusted on the basis of the number of members of the First Division .available in each disAs..long as men of the First Division are available; the members of tho Second Division will not be affected by tho ballots. It is estimated that there will be about 80,000 men in the First Division, consisting of single men, widowers without children; and men married since May, 1915. The rule has been to place all tho doubtful bien in the First Division, leaving them to appeal if they havo just cause for doing so. What proportion of this body of 80,000 men will bo available for service remains to be seen. The'division includes all tho men of 'the classes mentioned, regardless' of their physical condition, and all the availablo evidenco goes to show that more than half of them will bo found to-be unfit .in a military sense. ■Probably the proportion of rejects will be far in.-excoss of 50 per cent., since voluntary enlistment has already made a big '.drain upon tho fit single-men, and 'tlio First Division will include all those who have volunteered, and' been rejected ■on medical -grounds'during the 'lasti'two years'. ' v ' "