LONG-SERVICE SOLDIERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 237, 6 October 1945, Page 4

LONG-SERVICE SOLDIERS

Some weeks before VJ Day some of the n.c.o.'s of the Ninth and Tenth Reinforcements were notified they were being kept back to go with the later reinforcements to the Pacific. Since VJ Day this order evidently has not been cancelled, and, according to this week's air mail; these men still expect to be kept behind when their mates come home. As some of these n.c.o.'s were the 19-year-olds who were called up in 1940, many of them have had 4i years' continuous Army service, including 21 years overseas already. As most of them have been through the arduous battles in Italy for the whole campaign, have they not earned the right to have their total length of service in the Army reviewed before being sent to Japan for further service? Many went straight into the Army from school or apprenticeship, and have never had a chance to establish themselves in civil life. Will not some organisation or their parents speak up for these war-weary lads who are already veterans of the Army? SPEAKING FOR TWO.