REINFORCEMENT DRAFTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 77, 1 April 1918, Page 4

REINFORCEMENT DRAFTS.

MOBILISATION POSTPONED. TRANSFER OF MARRIED MEN. The authorities announce further postponements in the calling-up of the J various reinforcement drafts, _ advice I having been received that owing to training requirements it will not now be necessary to find a draft at the end of April. This draft was to have been made up in the camps, but it will now lapse. ! The Fortieth Reinforcement will be mobilised next week, and the Forty-first Reinforcement at the end of May. Subsequent drafts will have to be re-num-bered accordingly. The following are the new numbers and dates of concentration: — 40th Reinforcement April 3-6 41st Reinforcement May 28-June 1 42nd Reinforcement June 25-29 43rd Reinforcement. July 23-27 44th. Reinf orcument August 20-24 45th Reinforcement September I<-21 46th Reinforcement October 15-19 47th. Reinforcement November 12-16 48th Reinforcement December 10-14 I Instructions were received by the Director of Recruiting early in February that Second Division men set down for the April draft should be transferred to the May-June draft. Tlie strength of this draft is now above requirements, and the following further transfers are to be made: (1) All Second Division volunteers now under orders to arrive in camp at the end of May will be transferred to the new forty-second draft, to arrive in camp June 25-29; (2) Second Division men drawn in the thirteenth ballot, gazetted on December 4, 1917, and under orders to arrive in camp at the end of May, will be transferred to the I forty-second draft, as above; (3) Second ! Division men in the fourteenth and fifteenth ballots, gazetted January 15 and February 19, and under orders to-arrive in camp at the end of May, will be transferred to the new forty-third draft, to arrive in camp July 23-27. As a result of this the . forty-first draft, to be mobilised between' May 28 and June $_ will consist of First Division balloted men and volunteers, whether married or single, and the twelfth baUot Second Division men. who are at present under orders to arrive in camp at the i end of May. Second Division men -drawn in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth ballots, and classed Cl, if at present under orders to proceed to camp in June, are to be transferred to later Cl I drafts, as follows: Thirteenth ballot men to July Cl draft, and fourteenth and fifteenth ballot men to August Cl draft. ! One effect of these changes and transfers is to meet an objection made by the Second Division Leazue that men drawn in the fourteenth ballot were being taken into camp at the same time as men drawn in the thirteenth ballot. At the same time, the Defence authorities do not admit that there was any real grievance on this point, since the sole guarantee given was that every .allotted Second Division recruit would have twelve -weeks' leave bet-ween the medical j examination and mobilisation. The new forty-first draft was closed to recruiting as from February 26. The June draft is now- up to a sufficient strength, and was j closed to recruiting as from March 28.