CHARGE AGAINST ARMY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 11

CHARGE AGAINST ARMY

ALLEGED INDUCEMENT TO APPRENTICES HEADQUARTERS ISSUES DENIAL (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 11. Army Headquarters denied today that inducements were offered to apprentices undergoing compulsory military training to join the Regular Army and break their contracts with employers. The allegation was made by the Hawke's Bay branch of the New Zealand Motor Body Builders’ Union to the annual conference of the union in Dunedin. The Army’s policy on the enlistment in the Regular Force of men undergoing compulsory military training had been clearly laid down since 1950, said Army Headquarters. It included a clause which drew attention to the relationship existing between an apprentice and his employer, and said first that no apprentice would be enlisted till he had terminated his apprenticeship, and, second, that he would not be apprenticed in the Army until after he had completed six months’ regular service and then only if he was considered suitable and a vacancy existed for an apprentice in his trade.