REINFORCEMENTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 39, 9 November 1917, Page 6

REINFORCEMENTS

NO DRAFT NEXT MONTH

HOLIDAYS FOR SOLDIERS

No reinforcement draft will bo taken into camp .next month. The draft that has been set down for mobilisation about December 12 has been postponed until early in January, in. order to avoid having recruits in camp during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The next draft of CI men will also go into camp in January. , ... Practically all the troops in camp will be given leave for a period of ten days " or a fortnight, covering Christmas and New Year's Day. The men will begin to leave camp olxmt December 19 and will return -about January 5. A similar arrangement was' adopted last year. The leave will enable the men to go tci their own homes for the holidays; it will give the camp staffs a well-earned holiday, and it will make possible a very thorough disinfection of all the buildings, i huts, and tents at Trentham, Featherston, and elsewhere. A systematic turn;. .. gation will be.undertaken. by the medi-.-..cal and sanitary staffe. ' It has been announced already that the men drawn inthe twelfth ballot (the first instalment of the Second Division reservists) will not be required to mob- ■< ilise\before March 5 next. .The January - and■ February, reinforcement drafts will •be made up of men already within the I'reaoii of the recruiting branch, comprising balloted First Division reservists ■who have not yet entered camp, youths ■who are reaching military age, and vol- - nnteers. The volunteers always include a -proportion of men who wish to get into uniform in a hurry, and the authorities try to oblige them. The ballots necessarily overlap one another. Men who appeal cannot be taken into camp before their appeals have been heard," and |he military service boards often allow a reservist a month or two to settle his private affairs.. The gap created by setting back the mobilisation of the first of the mawied ,men until March will enable the reoruiting authorities to fairlv well "clean up" tie available First Division reservists.