POSTPONEMENTS OF ARMY SERVICE TO BE REVIEWED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28800, 22 January 1959, Page 10

POSTPONEMENTS OF ARMY SERVICE TO BE REVIEWED

“The Press” Special Service

AUCKLAND, January 21. When he was told that 689 compulsory military trainees were absent without leave from Operation Ulysses at Waiouru, the Minister of Defence (Mr Connolly) said they would probably be given an opportunity of doing their training in March; but he added that figures from the postponement committees were also high and would be reviewed. “A postponement made in December for a January camp.

fbr example, so that a trainee could help with harvesting, might no longer apply for a March camp," he said. Trainees who felt like applying voluntarily for servipe in the March camps before the postponements were reviewed should do so, eVen if they had been granted postponements. An examination of the figures had shown that most soldiers had done their basic training, but some had had their in-camp training postponed year after year for the same reason, the Minister said. Others had attended perhaps one in three camps. Their employment was such that each year when they wbre ordered into camp, the same conditions applied to get them a postponement. “All this, will be re-examined,” Mr Connolly said. The absenteeism is regarded as another test of strength for the Government. If the absentees are not prosecuted, the- Army can expect more widespread absenteeism when divisional artillery units train in February,, the 2nd Brigade Group in . March, and South Island units between now and-the end of March. When Mr Connolly told the 2500 troops at Waiouru that the law must take its coarse for military defaulters there were mupmurings from the ranks which suggested that the men were sceptical of thfe intention to punish the absentees. A top-ranking officer said, he had not heard such a reception since the first furlough draft incidents in World War H. There were 15.000 FN automatic rifles, coming, the Minister fold the troops yesterday to a lot of “Oh, yeahs!"