Army Recruiting Only 4 A Week

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 3

Army Recruiting Only 4 A Week

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 8. Recruiting for the New Zealand Army battalion in South-east Asia has dragged almost to a halt. The present enlistment rate is four a week—and falling.

At this rate it will take about 12 months to achieve the target of 300 hoped to have been reached by now. At the end of last week 789 inquiries had been received. From these, 281 firm applications were made. Enlistments so far total 59 —31 from Northern Military District, 17 from Central and 11 from Southern—but on past experience they can be expected to yield about 140 enlistments. The army’s director of recruiting (Lieutenant-Colonel H. L. Jones) said this after-

noon there was concern at the potential failure of the campaign launched on July 13. “In view of the army's pressing need to recruit men for overseas service, the response to date has been disappointingly poor,” he said. “The rate of enlistment is about 50 per cent lower than during the campaign run last year.” He said the army could not match the attractive financial benefits available in many other employment fields. There was no indication that fluctuations in the seriousness of the South-east Asian situation were having any marked effect on recruiting. he said.