THE CALL TO THE COLOURS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15917, 2 June 1917, Page 9

THE CALL TO THE COLOURS.

MOBILISATION OF THIRTIETH REINFORCEMENT.

REDUCING THE SHORTAGES,

(rnESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON. June 1. The mobilisation of the Thirtieth Reinforcements will be completed tomorrow, and recruits from the various districts will be in the segregation camps at Tauherenikau early next week. Some have reached the camps already.

Tko reinforcement is being mobilised about 300 men over strength, so as to effect a substantial reduction in tho shortage that has been carried forward one draft to another since last year.

It contains a bigger proportion of balloted men than any previous • enforcement. Tho shortage continued much longer than was anticipated when the first ballots were taken. The recent big ballots, the expiration of tho terms of suspension granted by tho Military Service Boards, and the increasing effectiveness of the recruiting organiations under the Act are swelling the lists of men available for service, and the authorities are confident that each future reinforcement will be mobilised above its strength until the shortage is wiped out. It should be understood that the shortage never involved the despatch of reinforcements from New Zealand below their proper strength, calculated on a definite percentage of the forces tho Dominion has undertaken to maintain in tho field. What happened was that the period of training in New Zealand was reduced in the case of some men, and tho training was made up in England before the men wcro required in the field.