FIRST DIVISION RESERVISTS

Evening Star, Issue 23677, 10 September 1940, Page 10

FIRST DIVISION RESERVISTS

REJECTS STILL LIABLE TO BALLOT [Pee United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, September 9. In a further statement to-day, the Minister of National Service (Mr Semple) said that considerable misunderstanding existed regarding the issue of certificates of- enrolment to first division reservists who had volunteered for overseas service and had been rejected on medical grounds. “ Such men,” the Minister said, “ remain members of the first division, and as such are liable to be called in the ballot and required to undergo further examination by a medical bopxd. Many of these men will have previously been rejected for comparatively minor defects, some of them of a definitely temporary nature. It would obviously bo unfair to exclude them from the ballots'when by the time they are drawn they may have regained perfect health.” The Minister also said the Government had decided that a departure would be made from the procedure followed during the last war in regard to gazetting the names of the men drawn in the ballots. “ The procedure was then to indicate the men who had previously volunteered by inserting an asterisk before their names in the printed lists,” Mr Semple said_. “ This will not be done on this occasion, as it is not desired to make any distinction, between those who volunteered and those selected for service by means of the ballot- The ‘ Gazette ’ notices will, however, contain a statement that the names appearing in the list include men who volunteered and had been found to be medically unfit.”