EARLY APPEALS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21211, 6 September 1940, Page 7

EARLY APPEALS

GENERAL RESERVE TRIBUNAL TO CONSIDER NOT TILL AFTER BALLOT (By Telegraph.—Press Association) (( WELLINGTON, Thursday “No appeals against being called up can be considered unless and until a reservist has been selected in a ballot,” said the Minister of National Service, the Hon. R. Semple, in a statement concerning the recent issue of certificates of enrolment to reservists of the first division of the general reserve. “When that happens,” the Minister continued, “there will be plenty of time and opportunity to submit to properly-constituted tribunals appeals for exemption on one or more of several grounds. “I desire to make it perfectly clear that my department cannot take any action in regard to appeals, the determination of which rests wholly with the tribunal referred to,” said Mr Semple. “Realisation of these facts will, I hope, result in a complete cessation of the flood of letters that has for days poured into hundreds of post offices throughout the country and eventually piled upon the department’s office tables.” Errors in Cards Dealing with other types of correspondence, Mr Semple said the personal details on certificates had been copied from information supplied by the reservists when completing the enrolment form, and it was inevitable that excusable errors occurred in typing the cards. This, he said, had resulted in considerable correspondence from reservists, who desired that every detail in the certificate should be “shipshape and Bristol fashion.”

Referring to letters reporting the non-receipt of certificates, the Minister stressed the necessity for prompt notification of change of address and said a great proportion of certificates failed to reach their destination because of that fact.