INTERIM ARMY

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1946, Page 3

INTERIM ARMY

JOB CONSIDERED TO BE UNATTRACTIVE OPINION OF OFFICERS [SPECIAL TO STAR.] AUCKLAND, August 5. Reasons why so few enlistments had been received for the Interim Army were suggested by four prominent Auckland officers of New Zealand’s wartime forces. Only nine men marched into Papakura camp a week ago. The officers considered the job was not attractive enough. The tenure was too short, and there was too much uncertainty about the future. It was felt also that potential recruits were simply being asked to be caretakers. “Boys feel that enlistment in the Interim Army would interfere with their careers and that it has no permanence,” said Mr. J. G. C. Wales, formerly commandant of-the Fijian Military Forces. “The average boy to-day'does not feel that, by joining the Interim Army, he would be getting into a regular army, but only im.o a makeshift one. The pay and conditions do not compensate for that, tor a boy wants to settle down to his life’s career as soon as possible. Compulsion Advocated. “In addition, boys feel, as I do, that if there is the need for service all should share compulsorily,” said Mr. Wales.

One of the great difficulties was that there had been a lack of policy so far, said another former officer. He felt sure that if a definite policy had );een announced the results would have been better. As far as could be judged, he said, prospective recruits were being asked to join the army to look after stores and vehicles. In other words, they were being asked to take on a caretaker’s job, not a soldier’s job, and it did not appear attractive to them. , This vievz was shared by another former officer, who said that the work must be done if thousands of pounds’ worth of material was not going to be lost, but it was a job that should be done by civilians at civilian xates of pay. Limited Appeal. Among the points put forward by

another former officer was the fact that only a limited number of men in New Zealand could be expected to join one of the services in peacetime and, by getting in first, the air force had absorbed most of those offering. He also expressed the opinion that the propaganda for the Interim Army had been poor. There had been too great a time lag between the Ministerial announcement that the army would be formed and the announcement of the conditions. The tenure was too short and there was too much Uncertainty. Men could not be expected to give up their civilian jobs to join an army under those circumstances. The speaker did not think the present rates of pay for tradesmen and technicians were • attractive enough to induce those types of men to leave civilian life.