REINFORCEMENT N.C.O.'S

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3177, 30 August 1917, Page 5

REINFORCEMENT N.C.O.'S

FUETHER EXPLANATION OF POSITION. A statement regarding the position of non-commissioned officers leaying New Zealand with reinforcements wa.l made by Sir James Allen in answering a quesliqn_in the House of Eepresentatives. ■"llie original system which, waa initiated by the Defence Department in Now Zealand, and which' remained in force for over two years of the war, was that all •N.C.O.'s of reinforcement drafts reverted to the rank of private on ceasing to belong to such drafts," said the Minister. ."Subsequently, as a result of recommendations received from France and the •United Kingdom, it was agreed that N.C.O.'s of reinforcement drafts sliould only revert to the nest lowest grade on arrival in the United Kingdom. It is understood that the present system is to put all N.C.O.'s, after arrival in the United Kingdom and after reverting one step, through a training school for N,(J.O.'s. Any man who does not do well Ts then reverted further to the rank of private. "This system has been instituted, by those officers who' know what their requirements for war: are, and therefore in their opinion likely to produce tho best results. I cannot, therefore, agree to interfere in the matter with those responsible for the system, who are in a better jiosition to judge than we are here."