ARMY RESERVISTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20493, 1 March 1941, Page 5

ARMY RESERVISTS

■SERVICE OBLIGATIONS ' MARRIAGE AFTER MAY STATUS DEFINED (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The position of men. under the national service regulations marrying on or after May 1, 1940, was explained by the department. Men of the first division of the general reserve, i.e., unmarried men who are 19 but who have not attained their forty-sixth birthday, marrying on or after that date do not attain second division status until such time AS a child is born of the union. Children born before the union do not affect the position and, in the case iof men marrying widows or divorcees with children, the position remains until a child is born of the union. Furthermore, marriages dissolved after that date place a man in the first division if there is no issue from that marriage. If he marries again after ..May 1, 1940, he remains a member of the first division till a child is born of the marriage. Similarly, if a man is judicially separated or by separation order and there are no children, he becomes a first division reservist. ' The statement explains too that the adoption of a child does not have the effect of a birth. It is also explained that should a reservist be drawn in a ballot gazetted on a date prior to the . birth of a child, he is still liable to perform his military service. If drawn in the territorial ballot, he would be transferred to the second division on notification haying been received of the child’s birth and, although he would not be relieved of the obligation to carry out territorial training, he would not be included in the ballot for overseas service with other members of the first division. Should, however, he be drawn in a ballot for overseas service and his name gazetted before the child’s birth, he is a member of the armed forces and would be required to undertake service with the expeditionary force.