ARMY RECRUITING

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1937, Page 10

ARMY RECRUITING

IN BRITAIN Conditions Made Better I British Official Wireless]. RUGBY, August 11. There has been a quick response to a War Office announcement to allow serving soldiers to extend their service, and to grant them pensions. Within a few hours, the first enquiries were received at the Central London Recruiting Department, and today many reservists called at the recruiting offices throughout the country. The new proposals for the betterment of conditions of servSc? f> r soldiers in the regular army are experimental and for a limited period. At present the most common form of enlistment is for seven years with the colours and five on reserve. It is only in exceptional circumstances that a private soldier is allowed to extend his colour service to qualify for a pension, or that reservists are allowed to rejoin the colours. The experiment will show the extent o which soldiers now serving with the colours or on reserve desire to adopt the army as a career, and will increase the number of enlisting soldiers. The new conditions allow serving soldiers about to complete their first term of colour service to extend their service; and to allow sections A and B of the reservists to rejoin the colours. Both classes of men will, on the completion of 12 years’ service, be eligible to re-engage to complete one year’s service so as to qualify for penSl °Mr L. Hore Belisha, Secretary of State for War, in a broadcast talk on the project, said that he was told that one of the chief anxieties of the serving soldier had been his inability to continue in the profession which he had mastered and liked. Under the new offer, his mind would be set at rest. He would know that the State would use his services normally ti*l he completed 21 years’ total service, generally when he was about 40yeais of age. ’ Under the present system, a soldier was bound to leave the colours after a limited period and, althougli a good soldier, he often could not find another job. The proposal was to give him a job in his own profession with a pension attached to it, and it would be a consolation to him to know that at the time of his discharge he would, while still in the prime of his life, have something coming in. In tact, the offer met the frequent assertion that the soldier ought to get more for his service, as under the new scheme the pension was in effect added to his pay. That would give- greater confidence, not only to the soldier himself, but also to his family. BRITISH "FITNESS” CAMPAIGN. [British Official Wireless']. RUGBY, August 11. The National Advisory Council lot Physical Training and Recreation IS now launching a campaign -for a Utter Britain. . The Council’s aim is by encouraging the growth of desire for personal fitness and extending the facilities for ail forms of physical recreation, to show the way to increased health and happiness to citizens of all ages. The Council makes a strong appeal tor the co-operation of the public in re-cognising—-in conformity with the voluntary principle accepted and approved by the Government and Parliament in the recent Act—that only the widespread acceptance of the new ideal of physical fitness will yield the results which the Government had in view in the promoting of the scheme.