ALLEGED DELAYS

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 110, 5 November 1915, Page 4

ALLEGED DELAYS

IN GETTING IN 10 CAMP

THE POSITION EXPLAINED.

Notwithstanding the shortage of recruits complaints are still being received that many men, passed as fit, have been kept waiting for months without being called up, and are still without notice that there services are required. The explanation is furnished in a variety of circumstances. The principal cause is ■ that many of these men, since registering, have changed their addresses without notifying the Department, with iho result ithafc when their notices have been sent they have not received them. If some cases, it is admitted, there may have been oversights, and men who consider they have been waiting too long are therefore requested to communicate with the Group Offices where they registered. Another cause is. that large numbers of men have enlisted for units for which only small drafts of mcii are required, such as army service corps, hospital ship, etc. As a case in point, upwards of 120 men have been passed as fit in No. 5 Group (Wellington City and Suburbs) . for the Army Service Corps, whereas only five or six men are required from Wellington for this branch of the service to make up the monthly quota. The majority of these men, accordingly, will have to wail for months before, they may expect to be called up to go into camp. With men enlisting for the Infantry the case is entirely different, the Infantry comprising almost two-thirds of the whole Expeditionary Force, and requiring to be reinforced in proportion. Men enlisting for the' Inlantry accordingly should not require to wait much more than a month before going into camp. There is, as a matter of fact, a shortage in the Infantry now for the 10tli Reinforcements, and more mcii are required to enlist forthwith for this branch to make up the draft. While the Defence Department is anxious that every man who can should volunteer for the Infantry, it does not desire that men who are specially fitted for the specialist units should transfer from them in order to make up nnmbers m other branches. These specialist arms include the Army Service Corps, for which wheelwrights, drivers, and saddlers are required. Specialists enlisted for such unit-s- consequently should keep their names down as they are, and though they may have to wait some time before being called upon, their services then will be required.