FIVE DAYS MORE

Evening Star, Issue 16264, 6 November 1916, Page 4

FIVE DAYS MORE

ROUND-TJP OF VOLUNTEERS

SERGE ANTS-MAJOR ON THE TRAIL. house-to-house canvass. The eligible reservist of the Fhst Division has five days more in -which to enlist voluntarily for the 2Srd or 24th Reinforcements. If he fails to do so ho will have to accept the risk of being taken compulsorily after the lltli inst., when the Military Service Act will be applied generally to make up all shortages. There is a special point that should. be noted by young men who desire to go voluntarily at a little later than the eleventh hour. This is the fact that the ballot for a draft is to be taken a month ahead, in order to givo sufficient time for the hearing of appeals and for the medical examination of conscripts. In other words, if a. man desires to join the December draft as a volunteer he must attest before November or risk the luck of the ballot. The present position of recruitmg in Otago is only a little better than was the ease this time last'month. The authorities are hopeful of avoiding each a serious shortage as occurred in connection with the mobilisation of the 22nd Reinforcements, who entered camp a few weeks ago. A new method in the laborious business of recruiting has been adopted. Since last Monday staff sergeants-major have been engaged in what may be termed a round-up of reservists. DuWin City, for example, has been blocked olf into six areas, and two sergeants-major, with red, white, and blue rosettes in their caps, as the hall-mark of authority, have set out systematically to traverse each area. The system of inquiry is really a house-to-house canvass, conducted tactfully. Those householders who have already ham interviewed acknowledge the tact'and patience of the recruiting sergeants. And patience and the gift of humor .are essential to the business. _ There is the case, for instance, of a jovial sergeant-major (who won a r>.C.M. on Gallipoli) who in his best manner rapped at the door of a cottage, and was courteously received by a. very old lady. She was interested in his inepviry, but was weak in interpretation, for with hand to her ear she gravely informed the sergeant that there were no old clothes to-day. After the joke had been explained and enjoyed (the sergeant really did not look like an old clo' man), th'e spirited damo confided that if she had onlv been younger she would have willingly helped. The results of the round-up have so far been more productive of useful inlormation than recruits. Perhaps the most interesting phase in the results has been the disclosure of the methods of the occupants of tne cheap type of boardinghouse. They are for the most part out-and-out dodgers, giving fictitious names, with the object of acquiring freo knowledge, of their physical ntness lor warwithout giving the authorities any hold upon them, 'these arc tho men who have failed to parade after successful attestation. The number is simply amazing'. lb is to bo hoped that their luck in tho iin-t ballot will bo bad.

Of course, all the men who failed to parade alter enlistment were not shirkers. iSevcrid volunteers have had legitimate, reasons for failure. One man wanted to go, for example, but » little Units before his draft left he was run over and lost, u' leg. 'I he canvass has shown beyond doubt that there is still a number of young men about the City, but apparently it is to be left to the appeal boards to'decide the validity or otherwise- of the reasons of these reservists for staying at, home. There is the ease of quo man who many mouths ago attested and was passed lit, but failed to parade. Inquiry by the sergeants-major disclosed the fact that ho had in tho interim taken a wife, and Jiad developed somewhat strong conscientious, objections to bearing arms. Apparently ho has found matrimony a bed of roses, which is what Stevenson has said it aiways isn't. This man should have difficulty in proving the validity of his eonscience claim. "When this was pointed out to him, he "remembered" that ho had a, bad leg. Doubtless he is now on the list as "shirker." It is not anticipated that the muchvaunted. " family shirker clause,"' which has delighted the mouths uf politicians like a pomegranate, will yield many eificient recruits when all the circumstances have been investigated. It is satisfactory to know that everywhere the sergeants-major .have been ieceived pleasantly, and particularly so by mothers who know what it is to "pay the full penalty of war.