REJECTED RECRUITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1916, Page 7

REJECTED RECRUITS.

STILL AT CALL OF GOVERN, MENT. _ Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, October 25. Some men have applied to the Defence .Department lately to be permanently discharged from the Expeditionary Force Reserve on the ground that they have already been rejected on medical grounds after volunteering for service. .The reply made to applications of this kind is that no reservist can be discharged unless he is permanently disqualified from being of use to the Department in any capacity at all A man who is blind or imbecile or permanently bed-ridden, for example, may be struck off the strength of the Reserve. But the reservist who has been declared unfit for service with the Expeditionary Force may be capable of performing clerical work or undertaking home service of some kind, and as long as there i 3 any chance of his being of use lie must remain in the Reserve. The rule laid down for the guidance of officers engaged in the administration of the Military Service Act is that no reservist is to "be discharged until he has been drawn in a ballot or summoned under the 'family shirker'' clause. Each man who ia called up for service will appear More a Medical Board and will have the opportunity to lodge an appeal with a Military Service /Board, on many of the grounds stated in the Act. If he can prove that then he is permanently unfit for any service whatever, he may be dir.eharfpd from the Reserve. But if the Defence Department can use him in any capacity at all and desire; to do co, he must serve. The clause of the Act covering this point is very wide, and empowers tile Government to employ eoiiEcriuts in any work connettcd with the war, either witliin New Zealand or abroad. Tile man who is found to be temporarily unlit may bo set back for any period or may be required to undergo medical treatment at the expense of the Defence Department.