SECOND DIVISION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3112, 16 June 1917, Page 8

SECOND DIVISION

—. —$ . PREPARING" FOR BALLOTS ,

FIRST STEP TO BE TAKEN

ALL OTANGES MUST BE NOTIFIED

POINTS OF DIFFICULTY

Tlie task of preparing for the calling up of tho Second' Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve is only now-being commenced by the Government Statistician and his staff. It has not been possible for the work to commence earlier, because i: is only two days sinco Cabinet agreed definitely upon the method of classifying the married men. In the meantime it is quite impossible to' give any kind, of an estimate of the number of .men in any of the classes. Tho only basis on which such an estiniato could' bo made is in tho National Register, but that was taken a year and a half ago, and the classification of many of the men, perhaps of a uiajority of the men, must have altered' in. that time. If, for instance, there were at that time-, say, 12,000 married men without children, it would be wrong *to suppose, that this number of men without children is remaining in tho Division to-day. Most of those who were -without children in November, 1915, when the register was taken, would be young men recently married, and probably have since become entitled to be moved out of Class 1. Other men have been married since that time, and it is probable that thero are just as many men without children to-day as there were when the register was taken, but the men who were married after May 1, 1915, are not in the Second Division at.. all. It seems almost certain that Class 1 will be found to be a very small class, yielding perhaps enough men for one reinforcement. Any guess nt the numbers of the other classes can

be no more than tho wildest hazard. i The step to be taken boforo anyone'ean

be in a position to Bay lion* many men there are in the several classes of the Division is the issue of the proclamation calling upon the men of the Second Division to notify tho Government Statistician of any change in their address or occupation, or in the number of their children. This proclamation in now ready for issue, and should be issued in a day or two. Some time will have to bo allowed to tho reservist? to supply the particulars for which tliey are asked. Probably they will be allow till about the end of July. > If after that tho Statistician is to be ready to draw ballots in October or November he will have to concentrate the efforts of his staff on bringing the Second Division roll up to date. '. ■'

On the faco of it the work may not appear one of great magnitude, but in practice file effect of the proclamation will be to order a new enrolment. If a man.is suvp that he is enrolled, and that he is correctly enrolled, ho may take the risk of leaving matters as they are, but every man who has not good grounds' for believing that he is correctly described in the roll of (he reserve will bo wise to enrol anew. Every man whose address or occupation lias changed and every man whose family has increased or reduced in number will be under an obligation to furnish particulars of tho changes. For securing greater certainty m identification every man sending in these items of information will be asked to give the number of his enrolment certificate. The reason for this cheek has been made manifest by experience with the First Division. Many men made unintentional errors or omissions in tlieir cards. Very often theso discoveries have been made as the result of the . activities of district recruiting committees. A committee will writo to state that one Bert Jones is not on tlie roll, and it is found that tho. man is identical with Albert William Jones, who is duly registered. Most of tho cases occurring are. however, not nearly so simple as this one. Tho numbers of men with exactly the same

name are surprising. For example, thero are on the roll H names "Robert Stewart" —not a very common name. It is therefore very necessary Umt the reservist should in his own interest be very careful to see that ho is correctly described in the roll. Many men 'have changed their occupation since tho roll was first compiled—labourers liave become seamen, hotel porters", have become elaughtermen.

The policy adopted by tho Statistician always has been to leave a name on the roll in all cases of doubt. The result of

this is that names are left on which should have been taken off, but it is impossible for any name to bo taken off tho

roll which ought to remain, and so it is impossible for any man to escape service in this way. Notification should have been given to him of every man who has died, or who has joined the forces voluntarily, and this information has been

furnished regularly, but owing to the carelessness of reservists in giving their names on. the register or-for the army roll, it has not always been possible to strike oft' names which should bavo been struck off. It will ha,ppeu for these reasons that the names will bo drawn in the ballots of men dead, or who

have been on active service. If absolute accuracy had been observed always it would have been possible for' the Statistician to have avoided very many of these incidents. There are vevy strong reasons why a reservist should be sure that he is correctly enrolled.

There are one or two points still to be settled regarding children of reservists'. Illegitimate children do not count under the present regulations. Bules will havo to bo laid down regarding stop-children and adopted children. Step-children will count for the purposes of classification if tho man married before a certain date to be fixed, but it would not be fair to allow a, widower with ono child to escape ser-

vice altogether by marrying a widow with six children. So, also, it would not be fair to allow a man to escape into a. later class by adopting a child. These are matters which will have to be met by regulations.