REPLACEMENT POOL IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24801, 15 February 1946, Page 5

REPLACEMENT POOL IN AUSTRALIA

RECRUITING TO BEGIN AT ONCE (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 14. Recruiting will begin immediately for Australian interim forces to provide relief and reinforcements for troops in Japan, the Islands, and Australia. The period of service is for two years, except in the case of serving members who have already volunteered for service in Japan for a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 18 months. Relief will be arranged within 18 months of the arrival of troops in Japan. The minimum age is 18 years, but men under 21 must obtain their parents’ consent. Pay is as prescribed for wartime special forces and service pay and allowances while out of Australia will be tax-free. Recreation leave equivalent to two days a month will be granted on return to Australia. Service in the interim forces up to September 2, 1946, will count for war gratuity entitlement. Stating that any plan which did not envisage the essential nature of the services of every ifldividual was only a perfunctory step, the former Com-, mander-in-Chief (General Sit Thomas Blarney) to-day attacked the Government’s defence policy. He said that in his experience a system dependent on volunteers for training was bound to fail. What had so far been decided was a reversion to the evil Military Board system.

The big weakness was that control was again to be vested in permanent officers while practically the whole of the troops and their commanders consisted of citizen forces—an influence which had made the Military Board itself a battleground of conflicting personalities. The administration staff was topheavy and the changes in personnel were puzzling in view of the rapidly declining numbers of troops. The pay and pensions of permanent officers he regarded as niggardly.