MILITARY SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 5, 5 July 1940, Page 5

MILITARY SERVICE

NATIONAL REGISTER

FIRST DIVISION MEN

ROLL COMPILED

Less than six weeks ago a start was made on the tremendous task of compiling the National Service Register of persons eligible for service with the armed forces of New Zealand. By the middle of next week the register of First Division men (in general, single men, natural-born British subjects from 19 to 45 years of age inclusive) will be practically complete, and the way will be prepared for the proclamation enrolling those so classified in the General Reserve established under the National Service Emergency Regulations, 1940. Then will follow in due course the issue of enrolment certificates forming the basis of the ballots which will make compulsory service an accomplished fact. The National Service Register has been compiled from details supplied in Part 2 of the Social Security Register, and approximately 900,000 forms have had to be dealt with. In the first place, it was necessary to divide males from females and then to sort out the single men from the married men. The next job was to work on the forms supplied by men coming within the definition of the First Division, and this occupied a large staff on sorting and checking, together with 200 typists who worked in two seven-hour shifts from June 24 until recently making up the index and- ballot cards. INTENSIVE LABOURS. The result of these intensive labours, which, in the case of many workers, necessitated overtime on Saturdays and j Sundays, is seen in a large room on! the seventh floor of the Hope Gibbons Building, Manners Street, where the . Director of National Service (Mr. J. S. Hunter)' and his staff have their offices. Occupying the whole of one end wall , is" a steel filing system holding the ballot cards of First Division men. The cards are arranged in metal containers, in the first place, according to military areas, of which there are twelve t and then in alphabetical order, , which, enables any card to be selected very readily. Operations on the Social Security Register were commenced on April 30, and the organisation was thus well in hand when the compilation of the National Service Register was decided upon about a month later. The forms were required to be in by May 31, but most people waited until the last few' days before handing in their forms, with the result that the staff was inundated with work for some time. "SINGLE" MEN. According to the regulations, single men are those who have never been married or those who were married on or after May 1 and have no children. . The definition also includes widowers, divorced men, and men who have been legally separated from their wives, provided in, each case that there are no children. The term child includes a child legally adopted by a reservist before May 1, 1940, if he was married before that date. The definition also includes step-children if the reservist has married the mother before May 1, and children legitimated by marriage before that date. , From these requirements it will be seen that the sorting out of First Division men required the utmost care in scrutiny of the forms. A surprisingly large number of people omitted to give essential details regarding the date and year of their birth,, which facts are vital for the purpose of the register. Since it is the age of the reservist on the actual date of the ballot that will determine whether he is to be included or not, every care has been taken to check up on these facts where, they have ilot been made plain in the forms. These details having been ascertained, the next job was to hand the forms, together With those not requiring a check, to typists, who made out the index and ballot cards. These cards had then to be checked over with.the forms, and this work is now almost completed. Each card bears a number for each man, his name, address, and occupation, date of birth, and the number of the. military district in which he lives. Finally, the cards were sorted according to military areas and arranged in alphabetical order. CERTIFICATES OF ENROLMENT. With the completion of the First Division register the next step will be the issue of a proclamation enrolling the whole of the First Division. Each' of the men concerned will be required to notify within seven days from the date of that proclamation any change of address which has taken place since he. filled in his original fbrm. These changes will be noted on the card, and certificates of enrolment, which have already been printed, will be issued. Any First Division man who does not receive his certificate of enrolment within 28 days of the issue of the proclamation should communicate with the office of the Director of National Service, Wellington. At any time after the enrolment of any class or classes of male reservists the Minister of National Service may require the Director to call up from •that class or those classes for service with the armed forces, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere, such number of men as the Minister thinks necessary, and the Director shall then call up the number of men specified, to be drawn by lot} from the class or classes to Trtxich the warrant relates. It is provided that the selection by lot shall be made by the Director "in such manner as the Minister directs and in 'the presence of a Stipendiary Magistrate." As yet there has been no indication of the exact procedure which will be followed in the conduct of the ballot or the number of men who will be required in the first instance. It is possible that only one age group will be taken at the outset, but in any case, the first official intimation that a ballot is to be conducted will be by way of notice in the Gazette. OFFENCES DEFINED. The penalties for breaches of the regulations are those prescribed in the Emergency Regulations Act,' 1940, a fine of £100 or twelve months' imprisonment, of both. Offences include the wilful giving of wrong information, the procuring of the omission of a name, the employing of a person who within the employer's knowledge has not been enrolled when he should have been, or the offering of bribes designed to defeat the purposes of the scheme. It will be seen that the compilation of the National Service Register, while a huge task in itself, still leaves a great deal to be done by the Director and his staff. The machinery required for the ballots and for the decision of appeals will involve much organisation, apart from the constant work that will be necessary in keepIng the register up to date. In the meantime no action has been taken concerning the registers of the Second and Third Divisions, although

the details are available for classification when required. The Second Division consists of married men within the age limits as those for the First Division, and the Third Division conssts of all other reservists 46 years of age and over. .. No more voluntary enlistments will be taken after July 22. :