GENERAL RESERVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1940, Page 6

GENERAL RESERVE

I ENROLMENT OF FIRST DIVISION

LEGAL OBLIGATIONS STATEMENT BY MINISTER.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The responsibilities of those whe qualify for membership of the First Division of the General Reserve were outlined in a statement today by the Minister of National Service (Mr Semple) who emphasised the legal obligations of both reservists and their employers. The work of the preparation, checking' and despatch of the certificates of enrolment of members of the First Division of the General Reserve, said Mr Semple, was a task of some magnitude. They numbered some 93,000. but a staff of over one hundred typists and an approximately equal number of other workers was able to complete the job between the morning' of Wednesday. August 21, and the end of that week, and the great bulk of them should be in the hands- of the reservists concerned. It had been found necessary to hold more than a hundred back, however, said Mr Semple, because of insufficient or illegible addresses, while a number had also been returned by the postal authorities because the addresses could not be found.. The Minister stressed the fact that an employer committed an offence if he employed for more than seven days a reservist of an enrolled class who had not duly enrolled, and any reservist of the First Division who had not enrolled was liable, not. only to severe penalties. but might also, on prosecution and conviction, be transferred to the armed forces without participation in a ballot."