RECRUITS FROM AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23016, 10 May 1940, Page 8

RECRUITS FROM AUCKLAND

FILLING GAPS IN OTHER AREAS COMPLAINTS BY MEN CTBBSB ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, May 9. The adjustment by the Auckland area of its own recruits for the 3rd Echelon to help fill shortages in the Whangarei area and the Southern Military District, has caused a stream of complaints from the mer concerned. It has also caused the army to waive its previous reluctance to call up married men with two children. Because Whangarei was about 160 short of its quota, both Auckland and Hamilton have been called o to make good the deficiency. Auckland is contributing about 100 men. and Hamilton the remainder, and the only way Auckland has of doing so is to mobilise all or practically all its married men with two children. These had previously been ignored during mobilisation plans. Two causes of irritation to the men have resulted. One is that they have had to be drafted into that arm of the service, the infantry, in which the greatest number of vacancies have occurred. It has always been the custom at the Auckland area office to draft men as much as possible to the units they preferred, taut naturally when a request was made for about 180 men for infantry reinforcements to go to Burnham, and about 100 more for infantry assistance to Whangarei, this custom had to be completely ignored. Many of the married men with two children are also of such a good stamp that they would in all probability have been among those sent into the district school at Narrow Neck to train as prospective non-commissioned officers. Through no fault of the army in Auckland. most of their chances in this direction, at least for the time, have disappeared. Discontent has also been apparent among many of the men drafted to Burnham as infantry reinforcements. The call for these seems to be mainly due to the shortage in the South Island and partly to the plan of utilising the various camps as conveniently as possible. The main ground for objection among these men is also that they are being drafted to a unit they did not wish to jqin, while another cause of complaint is that if they must join the infantry, they would prefer to go to Papakura, and thus be much nearer their homes. The position now is that Auckland, whose record of enlistments has been extremely good in comparison with some other centres, is using men as they volunteer, and are passed as fit.