SINGLE MEN FIRST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 111, 11 May 1940, Page 14

SINGLE MEN FIRST

TRANSFER SYSTEM

EXPLAINED BY MINISTER

An assurance that as far as possible any transfer; of men from one military district to another would bh confined to single men was given by the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) in an interview today when explaining, by way of comment on the above report, the procedure adopted by the Defence authorities in this connection.

"There has always been a certain amount of movement of men away from their home district," said Mr. Jones. "For instance the following units recruited from all over the Dominion have been trained respectively as follows:—Artillery at Ngaruawahia; Divisional Cavalry and Field Engineers at Papakura; Machine Gun Battalion at Burnham; and Maori Battalion at Palmerston North.

"There is no present intention of transferring men from Auckland to 'meet a shortage in any other district, but owing entirely to the difficulty that has been experienced in fitting in units of the 3rd Echelon to the existing accommodation in our camps, it has been found necessary to send some of the infantry reinforcements recruited in the northern district to Burnham Camp for training. " i

"The proposed distribution will enable the Department to make the best use of available accommodation, and at the same time keep units and their reinforcements together as far as possible. All men who volunteer are allowed'to state the arm of the service in which they prefer 3 serve, and as far as possible due regard is given to their wishes, but as will be appreciated it is not possible to meet every individual case.

"The number of men available for the Third Echelon is more than sufficient to fill the Echelon, and if a larger number than is required for any arm state their preference for that arm some of them necessarily must be drafted to another arm of the service.

"In the calling up of men the practice always has been to take single men first, and then married men without children, niarried men with one child, and married men with two children in that order, and in practically all areas it has been found necessary to include married men with children in order to complete quotas. As far as practicable the transfer of men from one district to another will be confined to single men.