MILITARY SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 October 1916, Page 6

MILITARY SERVICE.

—>— BALLOTING J OR RECRUITS. NO FAVORITISM TO BE SHOWN. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, October in. During recent weeks Defence Headquarters has been elaborating rules and regulations that are to govern the enlistment of men for the Expeditionary Force under the Military Service Act. The work has presented many difficulties. and even now procedure at all points is not finally fixed. But important progress Ijas been made, anil it is expected that'the regulations necessary belore compulsory recruiting can be begun will be gazetted, within the next week. They have been framed on a basis of what one officer has described as "absolute fairness and Prussian thoroughness," the sta(T having been guided by the desire to secure not merely efficiency but also the confidence of the men concerned and the general public. A suggestion often made by opponents of conscription is that wealth and social influence may assist a man to escape his fair share of the burden. The regulations provide an answer to that. There can be no favoritism at the ballot, which will 'be conducted under flueye of a magistrate and other witnesses by means of a barrel containing numbered marbles. Every man selected by ballot' will have to go before a medical board, and it be is passed as fit he must serve unless he can convince a Military Board, siting in public, that he ought to stay in New Zealand. The conditions governing the medical examination have been designed to prevent the personal factor having any weight at all. The doctors examining recruits in Wellington, for example, will be drawn from another district, and this rule will he followed throughout New Zealand. Then the recruits will be known to the doctors by numbers and not by name, and they will appear before the medical boards stripped ready foi examination. A military officer will'be present and will fill up each man's "persona) history form" from information supplied by the doctors as tlie.v proceed. The

whole method will be entirely impersonal and business-like. The system of balloting has been described already. Each mem'her of the Expeditionary Force Reserve, is represented by a card in the main roll, which is being compiled by the Government Statistician. ICach card bears a number corresponding to the recruiting districtin which the man lives. The cards are to be placed in boxes arranged to contain 501) cards each. Then the cards in each box will be num'bered from 1 to 500, some blank cards being included to allow for subsequent additions to the' roll. A barrel containing 500 marbles, numbered from 1 to 500, will be used for purpose of the ballot, and if number 70, for example, is drawn, then the corresponding card will be taken from each box. If the ballot i» being applied to certain districts and not to others (in order to make up shortages), the cards of men not living in the districts concerned will be returned to the boxes. District rolls are to be prepared as quickly as possible, but they will not be used in the ballot, for the present at any .rate. The main roll can be made to serve all purposes under the system described, and it will have the advantage of Ijeiitg up to date at all times, since the Government Statistician will make every correction and addition that is brouL'bt to his notice., Tile district rolls will be sent out to recruiting committees, local bodie. and the police with the object of having them checked and made as complete and accurate as possible, but this process will take time.