DEFENCE DEPARTMENT.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13984, 21 November 1917, Page 8

DEFENCE DEPARTMENT.

A MAKVEDLOUS GKOWTH. * ' / WELLINGTON, NoveroWr 16. 1 The war has biought into exlstoncfl in New Zealand three large and veiy important blanches of tho Defence De - partment, each of them performing a special function m connection with the Expeditionary Foieo Inej are:— Base Records, the Recruiting Branch, V and the Pa) Branch Each of thcuo departments has grown rapidly from ven small beginnings, and the limit of their growth is not yet reached Thev employ among them man) .hundreds of gnls, women, home bcivicc soldiers, ami ciulran" Thej aie kept verj much in the public eje, since tiicir work affects directl) tens of thousands of civilians as well as soldicis, and their opportum ties for service and also for error are \cry vide indeed These departments ha\c rcccned i gicat deil of ad\eisc cuticism at Aari ous times riic\ hue been accused of being o\pi stiffed, o\ or paid, meflieiciit, and wasteful. It has been stated freely that they harbour fit men who ought to be at the. front, and that they are not conducted on the best business lines Some of these ehirgcs no to be m\es tigntfed by the Commission that 'the Prime, Minister lias promised to set up to examine Defence expenditure, ami. others concern matters of fact that i . come under the observation of any visitor to the departments. A Dominion reporter who made some inquiries recently, gathered ■some interesting information on several of the points,raised. Base Records, The departments have been created during the war, they have been continually in a state of growth, and they have Avorked out methods- and systems without any precedents to guide them. In the early days of Base Records, for it was enough to have a simple method of indexing soldiers' files, so that the papers of any particular man could be turned up when information was required'concerning him. But today the branch has over 100,000 files, and yet it is able to answer a telephone inquiry regarding any particular man. It provides employment for more than 200 persons, who. attend to a highlyorganised system of indexes and records, handle lengthy ,and involved casualty lists' swiftly and accurately, and keep in touch with the. military' History of every member of tho Now Zea- N laud Forces from enlistment to dis- . charge or death. Base Records has a military staff of sixty-one men, of whom thirty-five are returned soldiers. The remaining twenty-six arc unfit for active service, or else are over age. Preference is given to returned soldiers in filling places on the staff, but the invalided men available do not always possess • the required qualifications. The male civil staff numbers twenty-two, ineludi ing boys and the civil heads of branches. All these men are either unfit or else are members of tho Second Division, and they arc subject to the ballot just like any other reservist. The fenialo staff numbers ninety-one, and in addition there is a volunteer staff of women who have given their time whenever it was needed to assist the work of tho branch. \ The Recruiting Branch. The Recruiting Branch, which has ' the adminstration of the Military Service Act, is in much the same position as-regards staff. It has grown even more,rapidly than Base Records, and the mass of work it handles is enormous. It receives from the Govern* ment Statistician-the names of the men drawn in the ballot, sends out the official notices, and then keeps track of each recruit until he is received into camp or dealt with finally in some other way. It receives appeals and distributes them to the Military Service Boards, issues instructions as to attestation and medical examination, j classifies recruits according to fitness, occupation, and so forth, and pursues, - ■ with the assistance of the police, the missing men and the shirkers. One of the problems of the Recruting Branch .has been to find room for unavoidable expansion as the volume of its work .-A ' grew. ]t. has been driven to change quarters four times since it started operations in a room at Defence Headquarters, and at present it occupies two lloors of a big city building. The ; branch employs no fit Frst Division -,,7 men. Its staff consists of girls and women, returned soldiers, home service soldicis, and a few male civilians, who are either Over age or are Second Division men, subject to the ballot. '■ It is suggested sometimes that the Defence Branches ought not to employ fit men at all, and, as a matter of practice, they employ very few fit men. But a visitor gathers an impression that a hard and fast rule on this point might not lie conducive to The bianches require a great deal of skilled clerical work to be performed under fairly arduous conditions. They work a considerable amount of over- ' time, particularly when ballots or casualty lists are being handled, and their . staffs must be capable of labouring ■ under stress at tiiues. Tlwp reporter ..;■ was|informed that returned'soldiers possessing '4 he .qualifications required for the higher grades of work in the :■■ Defence 'Branches/have, not generally shown desire, to stay in,the service. They realise that'the employment' is temporary, since thc'W.ar must elid some day, and; usually ithcy- can cam more ' money' outside,- They feel that 'they ~ have "done their bit," ami that duty ';<:.: ■ does not .hold, them to the .uniform. There..is room at'the present.'.time for ' returned soldiers qualified to,,jk>rvo as correspondence clerks, for example.' Or- <. derlies.;j)vho ; may;/ special • , qualifications, are easy foobtain. ' -.' ■'&</>■<■■ -.! '■•■■• !<'.'■-. v'' ' ' '.,-