CALL-UP AT AGE OF 36

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 13

CALL-UP AT AGE OF 36

West Germans Protest

(Rec. 11 p.rn.) BONN, August 21

The West German Defence Ministry has replied to protests from men of 36 and 37 against the Ministry’s plan to call some of them up for reserve duty next summer.

The Ministry said yesterday that men born in 1922 would probably be called for four weeks of reserve training next year, and last night denied the claim made by these men that their age group had “let rrfore blood” than any other German age group. When the men of this group were asked to register this week, there were widespread protests. In Kitzingen, for instance, 120 men signed a resolution saying their group had paid the highest toll in blood in the last war.

Mr Paul Luecke. the Housing Minister, told a stormy meeting called by the 1922 age group at Bensberg, near Cologne, last night that he understood from the Defence Ministry that only 5 to 10 per Cent, of the 1922 class would actually be calljed for reserve duty from one day to four weeks, and they would only be used for territorial defence.

He added that it was probable that only former non-commission-ed officers and officers up to'the rank of captain would be summoned.