LOST OVERSEAS MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1919, Page 3

LOST OVERSEAS MEN.

D 700(1 WANDERERS IN ENGLAND. j The records offices in London of the various overseas forces are making their last grand tally and trying to trace every man who has appeared on their books. Up to the present some 7000, about 1 per cent, of the total, cannot be accounted for. Not all these men are considered to be definitely lost. Some have gone ou furlough and have accepted work without the formality of communicating with the authorities. . Others have married and settled down with their "in-laws" in preference to returning to camp and telling the colonel. Others, again, are the restless irresponsibles, who have neglected to apply for an authorised discharge in England, although they might . have had it with a little patience'. Many of these, it is thought, will trickle hack. The South Africans have but twentyfive absentees, every other man of the 2(1,000 who came over being accounted for. The New Zealanders are 300 short, but they expect to see this figure re- ~ dnced. Most of the "missing" Australians and Canadians arc wandering about without j authority, and it will take a long time ' for the military police to round them up and shepherd them into concentration camps. Some of the Dominion Governments arc publishing advertisements warning these men to return by a certain date; unless they wish to forego gratuity and a free passage home.