VOLUNTEER FORCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20043, 15 September 1939, Page 3

VOLUNTEER FORCE

UNCONDITIONAL ENTRY STATUS OF RECRUITS TRAINED SPECIALISTS USE WHERE POSSIBLE (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. In an urgent question addressed to the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, Mr. J. A. Lee (Lab., Grey Lynn), on behalf of the Speaker, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, asked whether, in the case of trained men in specialist units of the territorial force volunteering for service, such men would be allocated to the same type of specialist units, and also whether any rank held by such volunteers would continue to be operative with the corresponding rates of pay. The Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, in reply, said that a man who enlisted for service in the special force could not be accepted for service in any particular unit, and the military authorities must retain the right to post or transfer him to any urtit within the force. However, wherever possible, the man would be posted to a unit ki> which he had previous training. A previous noncommissioned officer rank in the territorial force was a very good recommendation for promotion in the special force, but it in no way conferred the right on a man to be granted that rank in the special force; in other words, he enlisted without any stipulation as to the unit or rank in which he would serve. However, if a unit of the territorial force were called out for service he would retain his rank and appointment in that unit.