RESERVED JOBS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20220, 12 April 1940, Page 2

RESERVED JOBS

FILLING THE ARMY NONE INDISPENSABLE GOVERNMENT’S OPINION MINISTER EXPLAINS (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A definition of the position regarding reserved occupations in respect of military service was given by the Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, at a meeting of the National Patriotic Council yesterday afternoon. More than 1200 civil servants had gone with the First Echelon, said Mr. Sullivan, and he understood proportionate numbers would be included in subsequent drafts. That showed that public servants who were anxious to serve were being liberated. There were, actually no reserved occupations. There were some persons Who had been regarded as indispensable, and they had been asked to remain in their occupations in the meantime, but even there the Government’s attitude was that no man was to be regarded as finally indispensable, and that the first consideration was to be the filling of the army. The Government’s view was that an employer must train a man to replace the one who was in a key position and who desired to enlist. If key men really could not be properly replaced within a reasonable period, he would hdve to be retained. The Government was doing its very best to meet the requirements of the army and of industry as a whole.