THE FIRST BALLOT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2931, 17 November 1916, Page 6

THE FIRST BALLOT

''■ COMPULSORY ENLISTMENT BEGINS

v ;l v NAMES DRAWN YESTERDAY

" ; i TK 0 . nrst hallot under • tho Military -•Service Act was, begun yesterday morning, and was continued during the day. ■-the drawing was performed under the -supervision of -Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, jO-M., in accordance with the scheme . . devised by the Government Statistician (Mr. Malcolm Fraser). A large room ■■'■■'n. the ./upper story of a city building Jiad been prepared for the' purpose. ■-.'• The cards representing tho members of, the First Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve were stored in drawers placed in cabinets round the walls, and two rows of tables stretched the length of _ the room. Lack of .space made it impossiblo for any largo number of spectators to he admitted, .-. ibut the Mayor of Wellington (Mr. .T. 'P. Luke) and representatives of five . t !local_ newspapers were present. The drawing was conducted on the system ... ■■'already described iii The Dominion, :'-iand when tho proceedings closed for '.-■:■ the day at 6.20 p-m. about half the re- .,-.-,, quired number of names had been drawn. The ballot will be completed ' • • I Jo-day. Tho names of the men selected for ' Service are not likely to be published •■ .before.Monday or Tuesdav next. The' ; ■ Magistrate will certify to the list when '..-. .the ballot has been completed, but first i names .will, be checked carefully, with the object of.eliminating any pos- -: .'sible_ error. When the list is ready, !*t will be published in a special r'Ga- ':,- _-«tte," and' at the same time officers • Commanding the recruiting districts will : ibe furnished with the names of recruits in their areas, and directed to. . send a telegram to each of the.men, ■ informing him of'tho selection. TJio< .-. telegrams, will he followed by written Notices of the selection, forwarded by ■■ means of registered post. Each notice /will be accompanied by a form of appeal, and the recruit will bo told just ;,.. ,what. his rights and duties are, and ■ Aow to proceed if he wishes to take his case before a Military Service : Board for inquiry. V •-.■.-' The Method of Ballot. ■ /.The proceedings in connection with :'•■' the ballot began at 9 o'clock yesterday morning. The cards were then in ,-. 'their hoses, the tables were bare, the ■; barrels were empty, and the numbered Warbles were arranged in numbered depressions on trays, so that they could be inspected' at a glance.- The first '■:. step was the placing,of the marbles "-..in-the barrels. Mr. M'Carthy per- .. ;■ formed this operation, while cameras j 1 clocked and a kinematograph machine ~ buzzed. He'examined'each marbleandl .satisfied himself that every number j was there. The first barrel received 194 marbles, numbered consecutively, cor- -■■'. responding to the number of card boxes. The second barrel had-. 500 : ■ marbles, also numbered consecutively, this corresponding to tho number x - of cards in each box. 'When the barrels Were filled, ths.marbles from the first barrel were,drawn one at a time, and ---• as the numbers were' called the boxes 'bearing the corresponding numbers ■ were placed upon the tables. The boxes were placed in rows, their order being :.:. determined by the drawing. . When the boxes had been placed in their positions by half a dozen youths ...and checked! by the magistrate,, the ■ assistants who were to handle the cards ■/■entered the room,and took their scat's. " , They. were girls, and each girl had ! 'charge of four, boxes. Each box contained 500 cards, divided into groups of ten, by index cards with raised nuni- :•'■' l>ers. A certain number of blank ■cards had been included, in order to ' facilitate additions to the register. The . girls had been practised in their work, and scarcely needed tho instructions that were given them. They knew that .Jibe cards in each box were numbered . -from 1/to 500, and that their duty' was .'to turn np the cards corresponding to the numbers called in the course of ./the drawing, The Drawing. 'The actual drawing .began at., once. The second barrel, of which the riiagis- " trate had been holding trie key, was brought into use. A girl assistant turned it, the magistrate unlocked it, and the Government Statistician drew a --. marble. It was number 156, and ; , '.the, corresponding card in each . box was turned up. Tho ..exposed ■ portion of the card showed' the ■ number of the Tecruiting district in which." the man resided, but not tho ■■;': name of the man. The Magistrate pro- .-'•.' ceeded along the rows of boxes, in the ■'■ order in Which they had been arranged after the drawing of the first barrel, and .-'-fexamined each of the raised cards. 'If "it bore the number of a district from 'which recruits'were required, he took '."■ it from tho box and handed it to the "■■•■ Government Statistician. If it was a blank, or was from one of tho four districts that had supplied full quotas of volunteers, he returned it to its orig- '• inal position. The first recruit, was ;drawn from Group 19 (Gisborne),' and ' oh the/first draw the 194 boxes yielded Vl2O "live cards," the remaining 74 cards being blanks or representing men in districts that did not need compul■'"••sor.v enlistment, •i The cards, when withdrawn from, tlie ■boxes,by the _ became the basis of the list of recruits to be sup- - plied later to tho Recruiting Board by the Government Statistician. Mr. /Fraser -placed the cards-in a box, and ' a record of them was ta.ken ,by an offi,.cer who accompanied the . jilagistrate. Another officer kept a • record of tlio ~ number of recruits secured for each district, in order that ii district might be removed from the ballot directly" it had found its full quota. It was not until late in the afternoon'that he was able to'announce a district had secured its full number.of recruits. The district was No. 6 (Maviawatu). After a draw had been completed, the cards were handed to assistants, who copied out the names and -addresses of the men concerned. The cards were the original ones furnished by Reservists of the First Division. • A list showing the result of a draw was ready before the ~ next draw bad been completed, but these lists were_ rotjarded as confidential pending their being checked under the supervision of the Magistrate. ;•.■-.. Ensuring Fairness. ■ The drawing proceeded during the -Tiiomintr and afternoon without incident. The strain upon the attention of the assistants was fairly severe, but the'girls stuck to their work with a nroner realisation of its importance. Their day's effort was to have en ?dcd at 6 p.m., but at that hour the number of names.drawn still lacked a -hundred or so of half tho number required, and the girls responded' at once to a suggestion that one more draw should be taken in order to complete the half. Sixteen, draws were taken during the day. "When the Inst draw had been completed, Mr. Fraser explained that tho boxes would be left in position during tho night, in readiness for the resumntion of tho drawing at 9 a.m. to-day". A nnlicc- ' man and an officer of the Statistician's Department would remain in the room ■during the night to see that the boxes and tho-barrel were not interfered with in any way. Mr. M'Carthy tfijivould hold the'kev of the barrel and -'also the marbles already drawn. - The impression left upon the minds nf spectators was that the drawing had been conducted with absolute fairness >nd accuracv. The precautions were '•■ elaborate. 'There was a double check

I on overy operation, and eaeli move iti tho ballot was under the eyes of many witnesses. The girl assistants occu- [ pied positions previously allocated to them, and no girl could tell in advance what particular'boxes she was going to ! handle, since their order was determined by a drawing of marbles from the first barrel. 'Ihc gin's could not see the names on the cards at any stage. The Magistrate could not see tho names until Jie had lifted tho cards from tho boxes, and ho did not Jilt the cards until he had inspected the group numbers on tho exposed portion's. Nobody concerned could know in advance, with any certainty, that John Brown's card was.in a certain position in a certam box, since the insertion of blank cards might change tho: relative positions of other cards. Tho index cards had their fixed positions, but the cards between two index cards, numbered in tons, might be moved "up one" or "down one" by the insertion of a blank card in. the course of an addition to the roll or a transfer. The personal factor simply did not enter into iffig proceedings at all. AVhen tho. barrel was turned and a marble withdrawn, every one of the 80,000 or so reservists had his chance of being Summoned for service. If the number ou the'maVblo was, say,i 157, then the 157 th card in each box was snre to come -under tho inspection of ttie Magistrate, who would lift tho cards belonging to districts that needed recruits. The process appeared impartial, inexorable, almost mathematical, and the spectators agreed that they could <liscovcr no loopnole for error or abuse.