SELECTING MEN BY BALLOT

Southland Times, Issue 24227, 10 September 1940, Page 8

SELECTING MEN BY BALLOT

Announcement Made By Minister REGULATIONS AMENDED .. (United Press Association) , WELLINGTON, September 9. More important amendments to the National Service Emergency Regulations which have been Gazetted were explained by the Minister of National Service (the Hon. R. Semple) in a statement today. He said that it was necessary to take a ballot in the near future to secure the necessary number of men to bring the Territorial Force up to war establishment. To enable men to be drawn and dispatched to camp with the least delay it had. been found desirable to alter the original regulations and provisions were now contained in an amendment for arranging separate ballots for the Territorial Force and the Expeditionary Force register. The First Division was now nearly complete and, following the ballot, full use would be made of the district manpower committees, including a new one to be established at Palmerston North.

“To expedite , the procedure, they will deal with all the appeals of persons drawn in the ballot for the Territorial Force, while the Armed Forces Appeal Boards, provided for under the main regulations, will deal with the appeals of men drawn for overseas and with all appeals because of conscientious objection. Neither the man-power committees nor the appeal boards will be empowered to grant exemption from military service. Such appeals will either be dismissed or adjourned and kept under periodical review.” Mr Semple added that after the first ballot he hoped to arrange for persons permanently unfit, such as cripples, to be excluded from later ballots. HONORARY SERVICE The amendments ’ also provide that reservists may be required to provide honorary service where it can be performed without undue interference with normal occupations. Those whose overseas service has been postponed may be required to do territorial training.

“Included in the First Division of the National Reserve,” said Mr Semple, “there will be many reservists who obviously, were permanently unfit for service With the armed forces. In this class there will be men who have already volunteered for service, but have not been accepted because of medical unfitness, men suffering from permanent disabilities such as infantile paralysis, persons who have lost a limb and so on, and many other cases. Up ’to the present there has been no authority to exclude such persons from the ballot, but power has now been taken in the amending regulations to enable a properly-constituted medical board to certify that a person is permanently unfit for service in the armed forces, and in such circumstances the reservist will be transferred to the Third Division of the reserve and will not be liable to be called up for military service. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to deal with any of these cases before the first ballot.

“Power has also been taken,” said Mr Semple, “to enable the Minister of National Service to require reservists to perform honorary service, either within any scheme under the Emergency Precautions Regulations or otherwise. This will enable some obligation of service, other than in the armed forces, to be placed on reservists who have been drawn in the ballot, but who for any reason have not been placed in the armed forces, where such hpnorary service can be performed without undue interference with normal occupations.”

MAN-POWER COMMITTEES Mr Semple paid a tribute to the work of the man-power committees in maintaining a commendable balance between the requirements of the armed forces and efficient production of primary and secondary- industries, and said that with the knowledge and experience gained these committees would be in a position to handle expeditiously the large volume of work entailed in the examination of the classes of men called in the ballot for territorial service who were due to go into camp in October. The Minister added that to co-ordin-ate the decisions of the appeal boards, and also to enable Government policy in regard to the need for reserving skilled workers in the more important industries to be given effect to, the Director of National Service had been authorized to give a certificate to appeal boards and man-power committees that it was contrary to the public interest to call certain classes of reservists up for service with the armed forces.

FIRST DIVISION OF RESERVE ISSUE OF CERTIFICATES OF ENROLMENT (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 9. In a statement today-the Minister of National Service (the Hon. R. Semple)

said that considerable misunderstanding existed about 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,” said the Minister, “remain members of the First Division and; as such, are liable to be called in a ballot and required to undergo further examination by a medical board Many of these men will previously have been rejected for comparatively minor defects, some of them definitely of a temporary nature. It would obviously be 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 with regard to the Gazetting of the names of men drawn in ballots. The procedure then was to indicate the men who had previously volunteered by inserting a star before their names in the printed lists. This would not be done on this occasion as it was not desired to make any distinction between those who had volunteered and those selected for service by means of a ballot.

The Gazette notices would, however, contain a statement that names appearing in the list included men who had volunteered and been found to be medically unfit.