30th REINFORCEMENTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3100, 2 June 1917, Page 9

30th REINFORCEMENTS

REDUCING THE SHORTAGE

POSITION OF RECRUITING

'iho mobilisation-of the Thirtieth B-ein-forcoment is boiug completed to-day, and Iho recruits from tho various districts will all be in the new segregation camps at Tauheronikau early next weok._ Some of them hnvo reached tho camps already. The reinforcement is being mobilised about 300 men over strength, eo that it will effect a substantial reduction in the shortage-that has been carried forward from one draft to another since last year. It contains a bigger proportion nf balloted men than any previous reinforcement.

Tho shortage has persisted toucli longer than was anticipated when the first ballots were taken. Its extinction Ims bean promised at Various times since then, but apparently the immediate results of the ballots, in the form of fit men ready to enter camp without delay, hoys been below the estimates. There is no doubt now,, however, , that, the corner has neon turned. The recent big ballots, tho.espiwi.tion of terms of suspension granted by tho Military Service Boards, and the increasing effectiveness , of tho recruiting organisation under the Act, aro swelling the lists of men available for service, and the authorities nro confident that ouch future reinforcement will be mobilised above strength until tho shortage has been wiped out. ■'■ - It should be understood clearly -that the, shortage has never involved the dipatch of reinforcements from New /ealnfnd l>elow their proper strength, calculated on • a definite percentage of the forces tlio Dominion has undertaken to maintain in tho field. What has happened r is that ■i he -period of training in New Zealand ■ has been reduced in the case of some of tho men. The training, has been made up in England before the men were required in the field. The New Zealand command, as n. matter of fact, lias had reinforcements in hand, as the Defence Minister explained recently in announcing the -formation of an additional brigade of New Zealand Infantry from accumulated reinforcements: .An- important cause, of delay in. getting balloted men into ieanip has .been the operation of the system of appeal provided by the Military Service Act. The system is generous, and its administration by some of the Military Service Boards has been more generous still. Terms of suspension have been granted very freely indeed, aftd the proportion of 'appeals among .the men 'drawn for service has fended to grow. Roughly, half of the ,8000 odd men drawn in the seventh ballot lodged appeals. Every anpeal means delay in getting the man into c-anrp, , since tlie boards must have time to arrange their work, and cannot d«il with tho cases very rapidly. The indefinite- multiplication of boards is out of the Question for several reasons.