MARRIED RESERVISTS

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1918, Page 4

MARRIED RESERVISTS

THE "LUCKY DRAFT." (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Sept. 4. A memorandum issued by the Director of Recruiting shows that the men of class D (three children) have still many months to wait before their turn come 3 to enter camp. The October, November, January and February drafts (47th, 4Sth, 40th and 50th Reinforcements) have been closed to recruiting as far as the married men are concerned. The first throe drafts are full and the February draft will take only First Division men (ballot accretions and 19-year-old and 20-year-old volunteers). The March draft (51st Reinforcements) ia open, to Second Division recruits. The 4000 men remaining in class C (two children) are to be called np on September 18, and the majority of the fit men among them will be posted to the March draft, but there will be a surplus to carry forward. The figures suggest that the class D reservists will not be required to begin entering camp before May next. If that is the case they will not reach the front in time for next year's fighting. There may be no fighting for them to do in 1920. Class D, which contains at present rather more tlian 20,000. men, may supply "the lucky draft." Bets have been made on this point in the camps lately. The lucky draft will be the one that makes the voyage to England and arrives there just in time to assist in the celebration of a victorious peace. That, at any rate, is the camp definition. There may be men who would rather face the German shells than the chaffing that will be the lot of the soldiers who have missed the war. A New Zealand recruit reaches the trenches normally from seven to nine months after he.enters camp in this) country. It appears, therefore, that theclass C men who are..to be drawn this month, and who are posted to the March draft, will enter the firing line not earlier than the end of September, 1919. They may be just in time to take part in the closing movement of' next year's campaign. But if 1919 is going to be the year of decisive success for the Allies, as many of the military prophets believe it will be, there is not likely to be much fighting in the late autumn. Specuation along these lines is interesting, but it provides no basis' for exact calculations. Last year the camps used to bet that the married men would never be called at all.