GALLING SINGLE MEN

Evening Star, Issue 24116, 10 February 1942, Page 4

GALLING SINGLE MEN

NOTICES BEING SENT OUT ALPS! ENTIRELY INFANTRY TRAINEES The majority of the notices calling up approximately 1,400 single men in the Otago military area to enter Canterbury and Southland camps next Tuesday have been sent out. but there are still a number of men to be notified. Some of these men have had a long immunity from service, as several to be affected "were called as far back as the seventh ballot, and there are actually one or two who were in the fourth ballot.

Most of the men who remain from the earlier ballots were not in possession of particular qualifications which the Army could use to advantage; the records were thoroughly combed, and all men with special qualifications were called upon. In the later ballots there are probably still some' specialists, but changed circumstances make it likely that the services of such men will not, iu the meantime, be directed into particular channels. Practically all the men now being called up will undergo infantry training, and the preferences of the men for any one unit may not be given effect to as in the past. Apropos the situation, the Otago military area commander, Lieutenantcolonel J. G. Jeffery, stated this morning: “The Army Department has always tried to post men to those units which they have expressed a wish to join, or to use them-in accordance with their qualifications. It _is no longer possible to carry out this practice, as drafts are now being required almost entirely for new units which have been created, and which are of an infantry natdre.

‘‘ The established units are now requiring only small drafts to meet normal wastage, and this applies also to most of the technical units—such as tank corps, artillery, engineers, signallers, and motor transport. So far as possible, however, men will be used to best possible advantage, according to their qualifications, but the Immediate need is the filling of our quotas irrespective of qualifications and preferences.”