THE SECOND DIVISION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1731, 28 June 1917, Page 3

THE SECOND DIVISION.

VOLUNTEERING ALVY BE STOPPED. An important statement regarding the recruiting of the remainder; of the Expeditionary Force Reserve was made to a. reporter by the Defence Minister (Sir James Allen) yesterday. “It has already been announced that we have stopped voluntary recruiting for the Fir.-4 Division," said the Minister. “I think that in all probability we shall stop voluntary recruiting for the Second Division also. There docs not seem to be any good reason for keeping it going, especially as the classes in the Second Division will be so small that every man will know about the time that he is likely to be required to go into cant]). 1 think it is better that we should settle by ballot the lime for every man to go. To permit voluntary enlistment would make it necessary for us to continue to use district rolls, but we shall find it more convenient to use only one roll for every class. It will be a great convenience for us to work with single. rolls instead of numbers of district rod’s, because the preparation of these district rolls will be a colossal task, so big that; the work could not be done in lime. “Itegarding the classes of the Second Division, nil that we have to go on now is the National Register, and the condition of many reservists as to the. number of their children will have alien'd since then. We propose to bring our information up to date by issuing to po-| ofliees all over the country cards which Second Division men will be asked to procure and till in. I don't think the cards are out yet. but they will be out in a .day or (wo, and they will be returnable by sonic date to be named. The Government Statistician will be reads' to commence to make up bis rolls by (he end of July. It should be uuderi stood that we are md sending lie card-- to the men. Reservists will base to gi t them from the post oflices. If a man neglects to till in a card notifying a change in bis condition. and he is subsequently drawn in the wrong ehc-s, he will still have the right of appeal lo the .Military Sendee Hoard. "Before we call upon Uie Second Division we propose to re-ex-amine the men rejected as medically unlit, idle ('2 men. What we propose jo do is to set up a special medical hoard to’ go through the medical history sheets of these men, and (■> pick from among them the names of those men who in their .judgment would he iignin judged medically until if they were again examined. The other G2 men will he put into another class, a.tid this latter class will be medically re-examined. The others will he held over meantime, possibly to be re-examined later. One of the objects of this preliminary classification is to lessen outwork. There may be a large number of these medically unlit men, perhaps oO.OUO of them, and we shall be able to tackle the work of re-examination belter if we divide the men into these two classes (irsl. “Yon ask me whether it is intended to give any longer notice to Second Division men than has been allowed to First Division men before catling (hem into earn]) after they are balloted. As far as I, know wc shall call up reinforcements two months before the drafts are required to go into eamp. We have not always been able hitherto to give every man his full two months of notice, owing lo*the necessity for getting men into camp to make up shortakes, hut in future we hope to he able lo give us nearly as possible two mouths' notice to every man between the lime that he is drawn in the ballot and the lime that he is called into camp. “The First Division will certainly last two months longer, and may last three months. We may get another draft out of the men rejected previously as unlit, and out of the reconsideration of the men whose appeals have been adjourned sine die by the Military Service Boards, We may even get two drafts from these men. This means that we may have to draw upon the Second Division in October, and that we are almost certain to be drawing upon it in November.”