THE NEXT BALLOT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 45, 16 November 1917, Page 6

THE NEXT BALLOT

FIXED FOR NOVEMBER 26

5000 NAMES TO BE DRAWN

It lins been decided that tlioro shall be no postponement of the noxt ballot, which will take placo on Monday, November 26'. About 5000 names will bo drawn from Class A of the Second Division. The Gazette containing the names of the selected men will be issued on Tuesday, December i. It will contain also the names of First Division men who have recently reached military age or who have become availablo in some other way. This ballot—the thirteenth-will leavo about 5000 men in Class A, and they will bo called up on bloc in January. The men drawn thi3 month will be medically examined during December, beginning about December 7, and will bo due to enter camp, nftor their twelve weeks' leave, on April 2to fi. The Jauuary men will be set down for concentration between April 30 and May i. Complaint has been made in Dunedin (lint "lads of nineteen have gone forward with the November reinforcements, whereas men drawn 1 in some of the earlier ballots have had their leave extended till January." The reduction of the reinforcement quota made it necesearv that some of the men ordered to mobiliso in November should be set back, and it appears that Defence authorities gave the necessary notice to balloted men, selected on account of the apparently essential nature of their occupations. No volunteers were set back. It was considered that as these men had chosen their own time for entering camp and made their arrangements accordingly it would bo unfair to postpone their mobilisation to suit the convenience of the Defence Department. Experience has sliown that volunteers usually are in a lrarrv to get into uniform and aro vexed by "unnecessary delay.