THE NEXT BALLOT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3093, 25 May 1917, Page 4

THE NEXT BALLOT

RECRUITS FOR THIRTY-SECOND : REINFORCEMENTS. ,

Voluntary recruiting fortho Thirtj--second Iteinforcements will be closed toniorrow. The Dominion shortage will be determined b3' the. lieeruitiug-'.Branch as soon as the reports from the various districts have been received, and a ballot to provide iho additional recruits required for the draft will, be taken ou Tuesday. Another large ballot is expected, as the shortage will 1)0 at least as large as in the case of the Thirty-first Reinforcements last month, and the proportion of five reservists to each recruit appears to be necessary.

It has been indicated in official statements that the mobilisation of reservists of the Second Division will not be begun until tho CI, and C 2 men of the. First Division—the temporarily unfit and homo service iroup^—have been reesamined and The details of the arrangmiejits necessary to- secure this end are under consideration. The handling of the classes of the Teserve in their strict rotation presents cori' siderablo difficulties, and it ehould bn understood that a certain amount of overlapping is necessary whatever arrangement is adopted. Tho divisions and classes must merge into one another to eqme extent, aud result in. the formation, of mixed drafts.

The primary consideration, is tbe neecJ of the Defence Department of 2000 odd fit recruits every four-weekly period. If the Department tried to "wash up" tho •First Division completely before it took any men from the Second Division, there would be a period whon drafts would iall below strength. The last few hundred Pirefc Division men would dribble into camp over a period of weeks, or "even, monthp, and the training drafts, already short of their full strength, would be depleted to the poinfof danger, that if, the point at which reinforcements might be short. The recruit drafts must be filled month by month. But while kecp'ing that point in mind, the Defence authoritiee will endeavour to ensure that no class shall be balloted until ttle class ahead of it has been a 6 nearly as possible exhausted.