U.K. Recruiting Troops In Colonies

Press, Volume C, Issue 29651, 23 October 1961, Page 11

U.K. Recruiting Troops In Colonies

(W.Z. Press Association—Copyngfit) LONDON, October 22. Britain was making “great attempts” to recruit troops in British colonial territories in a bid to avoid a return to conscription, the War Office announced last night.

Already 100 recruits had been enlisted in the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean and another recruiting drive was at present in progress in the Fiji Islands, the War Office said. Special arrangements were being made to get the new recruits to Britain. All colonials recruited

would be absorbed into existing British Army regiments, a spokesman said. Earlier, the “News of the World” had reported “a coloured army” was being brought to Britain from the colonies. “We are particularly short of men in the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Corps of Signals,” the spokesman said. The War Office was “particularly anxious” to get recruits from the West Indies. He said there was no target—“We just want to get as many as we can.” The “News of the World” said few British military chiefs believed the target of 400,000 regular soldiers could be achieved in Britain by 1963, when the last of the short-period conscripts will be demobilised. It said experimental recruiting campaigns had been “quietly” launched in the Seychelles and in Fiji. The Government was negotiating to launch similar campaigns in other Commonwealth countries such as the West Indies and the West African territories and a plan to bring Gurkhas from Nepal was being considered, it said. The War Office spokesman said it had always been possible for non-whites from the colonies to join the British Army, but only now was a special drive being made to recruit them.

Trade Pact.—The Japanese trade agreement, which covers all trade between Japan and Australia, will continue in force at least until September next year, the Minister for Trade (Mr McEwen) announced today.— Canberra. October 21.