AUSTRALIAN ARMY RECRUITS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26120, 24 May 1950, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN ARMY RECRUITS

4509 WANTED FROM

BRITAIN

(Rec. 8 p.m.) MELBOURNE. May 23. Britain has approved an Australian plan to recruit 4500 British migrants for the Australian Regular Army. Announcing this, the Australian Minister of Immigration (Mr H. E. Holt) said that the soldier migrants, who would include 1600 tradesmen, would spend six years in the Army uhd then have the option of settling privately in Australia.

Most of the recruits would be single men, aged between 18 and 35, but certain Army specialists would be accepted up to 41 years of age. This plan replaces an earlier one to recruit skilled British Army instructors to reinforce the Australian Army training staff in preparation for the proposed national service scheme.

Australia abandoned the earlier plan because the desperate shortage of skilled instructors in Britain is hampering Western defence preparations, and because of differences in the basic approaches to training.

In a leading article published to-day. the “Manchester Guardian” said that : there would be plenty of volunteers for the Australian Army scheme. The Royal Australian Navy had not had difficulty. in recruiting 1000 former naval ratings in Britain tv r o vears ago. The “Manchester Guardian” said: ■ “This seems a nasty knock for Mr Strachey’s urgent campaign for more British Army regulars, since 4500 men are the product of three months’ recruiting here at the current rate. In any case, more regulars for the Aus- ; tralian Army must be made to mean some lightening of our own commit- | ments in the Far Eastern theatre.”