The Bay of Plenty Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 15th, 1939 HOW CONSCRIPTION WORKS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12820, 15 August 1939, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 15th, 1939 HOW CONSCRIPTION WORKS

Announcements such as “The 1917 class was called up m Italy,” or “the second class reserves have been warned to hold themselves in readiness,” have been common during recent months. Those who have no experience of conscription are often a little confused by the different classes and categories. Conscription systems -vary a good deal from country to country, but the same underlying principles prevail almost everywhere. Age is generally the ruling factor, and the liability to serve is divided into three periods—a year or two with the colours during which the conscript gets a whole time training of army life and discipline; a longer period in the first reserve, which would be called up as soon as war seemed imminent ; and a third period either in a second reseme or the territorials, national militia, or some similar force. In this way the “Terriers” of conscript countries are nearly always men between 40 and' 50 who have served their terms in the regular and reserve forces. But even the territorial service is compulsory. In several countries the reserves are called up in contingents according to their age class. Thus men of 23 who have just finished their full colours service, form the 1916 class that of the year in which they were born. Conditions of reserve service vary a good deal. In most conscription countries it is enough to have completed your term of training and to hold yourself ready for service whenever your Government serves you with the usual three or four days’ notice. In other countries, notably Denmark, periodical training periods are demanded —twice in the first five years in Denmark. The object of conscription is not, in most cases, to maintain a large standing army, but to keep a strong'emergency reserve of trained men. The period of liability varies a good deal. Service generally starts between the ages of 17 and 21, and the final discharge from second reserve of territorials comes to men between 50 and 55, according to their nationality, although in Holland at present a man completes his military responsibilities by the time he is 40. The conscripts ’ chances of exemptions also vary a good deal. They are at their lowest in the Fascist States and the smaller nations who cannot afford to be generous in, this respect. Denmark’s exemption laws are generally considered to be the strictest of all; even the clergy and medical students have to serve, and in Switzerland the only cause for exemption is physical weakness. In Germany conscripts start their regular army service when they are 20, but before that they must have worked in a labour camp for at least six months. They get two years with, the regulars, 14 years in the reserves and nine in the Landswehr — Germany’s territorials. Mussolini’s conscripts join the regulars when they are 21 and get 18 months’ service training. After that they are granted permanent leave; officially there is no reserve in Italy. This continues until they are 55, Although after his 31st birthday, an Italian may, if he Avishes, join the Fascist Volunteer Army. France’s conscription terms are exactly the same as Italy’s, with the■ exception that, each year’s recruits are called up in two batches. Belgium youths have the choice of starting military life as a volunteer at 17, or a conscript at 18, the volunteers serAdng in ■the regular army for four years —tAvice as long as the conscripts — but serving shorted periods in the reserves and territorials. Holland too, offers its citizens the choice of the tAvo forms of seiwice, but in both countries the volunteers form only.a minority. Poland, Greece and'Yugoslavia all have exactly the same conscription latys —two years in the regulars, eighteen in the reserves and ten in the territorials. In addition to regular army service Rumania keeps a reserve in Avhich trained men remain for eighteen years. THOUGHT* FOR THE DAY MORAL courage is a virtue of higher cast and nobler ’origin than physical. It springs from a consciousness of virtue, and renders a man, in the pursuit or defence of right, superior to the fear of reproach,' opposition, or contempt.—Goodrich.