THE MAIN BODY DRAFT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 137, 5 March 1919, Page 4

THE MAIN BODY DRAFT

I— : — HOW IT IS COMPOSED. Attention lias been drawn to the fact that the "Main Body Draft," due to reach Wellington on March 15 in the transport Hororata, includes several hundred men who did not leave New Zealand ~. with the Main Body. Those other men comprise members of the Rifle Brigade and of early reinforcements. ' The position is that the Hororata is , briiißinp; the first draft of fit men returned to the Dominion in order of seniority. It consists of 1914-15 men, who are being repatriated first. The draft includes the bulk of the fit Main : Body men, but it does not include them all. nor docs it consist wholly of men who left the Dominion in 19U. ' But it contains the largest body of Main. Body men that New Zealand will have a chaiico to receive- on a single occasion, ami for that reason it may fittingly, be welcomed in a special way. . It may be mentioned that all the Main " Body men remaining with the New Zea- • land forces at the date of the armistice ■ did not wish to hurry back to New Zealand. Some of them desired to take part in the occupation of the Rhine territory, and others wished to have a period , of leave in the United Kingdom before they embarked. It is doubtful if, in any case, there would have been enougr. fit Main Bodv men remaining with tin . New Zealand forces to complete the Horo rata's draft.