WITH THE RECRUITING VAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 31, 26 January 1940, Page 4

WITH THE RECRUITING VAN

The best recruiting story, and a true one, comes from Wellington. It happened one recent Friday evening, when five men joined the forces. An army recruiting van, which tours the city and suburbs, was ending a busy day in town and preparing to leave for Petone. Just as the sergeant in charge had decided to close up the van a taxi pulled up at a nearby house and three men got out. But instead of going inside, they walked over to the van. "Is this where we join up?" one of them asked. "Tt is," said the sergeant in charge. There and then, the papers were signed. "Wait a minute, I’ve got a brother inside," said one of the men. The brother was soon produced and signed the necessary papers. This was too much for the taxidriver. "Well, I'm in this too," said he, scratching his prematurely bald head, and demanding an enrolment form. "And the ride won't cost you anything," he told the three men as he got back into his car. The next best story, vouched for by a former officer of the New Zealand Staff Corps, concerns the man who wanted to enlist, but didn’t want to do so until the million mark had been reached at the Centennial Exhibition. He wanted to win that honour and enlist at the same time. The travelling recruiting van has been an excellent institution, producing a steady flow of recruits who are perhaps not able to get to the recruiting offices when the mood is on them.

I spent a few hours with the sergeant of one of the vans after it left Central District Headquarters, Nothing spec-

tacular happened, for the business is a serious one. Men sauntered up, matter-of-fact in their requests, remarking for

the most part that "it seemed the right thing to do." The sergeant was proud of his morning’s work. "We got a beautiful chap to-day," he told me, "a six-footer weighing 14 stone. He joined after the community sing." Our first stop was outside Army Headquarters. "Is this where I do it, or do I go inside?" asked the first recruit, pointing a grimy finger towards the main entrance, "No, right here," said the sergeant, whipping out his papers. A passerby came up to shake the new recruit by the hand. "I was in the last show," he said. " Good luck." Next came two Australians, who merely asked for the necessary papers and disappeared to fill in the particulars in a nearby car. "Lots of them are like that,’ the sergeant told me. "They seem rather shy. Most of the men who came forward the other evening did so when dusk had fallen," As with the recruiting vans, so in the various depots. There is no spectacular rush of men, They come in ones and twos, drifting in as opportunity offers, men from all calls in life. Pride of place for filling its quota for the 2nd Echelon goes to the Hawke’s Bay District which had more than sufficient men by the closing date, Auckland came next. New Zealand has been divided into twelve areas for the recruiting campaign, each on a geographical basis and each supplying a required number of men. In this way the resources of one district are not exhausted before the others and the distribution of man-power is kept on an even and fair basis. But the campaign will not cease when the requirements of the 2nd-Echelon have been filled. "Freyberg needs 10,000 men" is the slogan, for the 3rd Echelon has yet to be filled, and after that reinforcements will be necessary,