AIR FORCE RECRUITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 10

AIR FORCE RECRUITS.

HUNDREDS OF APPLICATIONS. EMPLOYMENT NOT PERMANENT. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. ] WELLINGTON. Friday. In reply to an inquiry concerning the response that was being made to the call * for recruits for the New Zealand Air Force the Minister of Defence, Hon. F. J. Rolleston, said several hundred applications had already come to hand, but there appeared to be a misunderstanding of the position on the part of some of the applicants, who seemed to be under the impression that the employment was of a permanent nature. The Minister emphasised that this was not eo, as the enrolment proposed was to be in the New Zealand Air Force, which was a territorial air force and was not to be confused with the New Zealand Permanent Air Force.

The position was briefly that the 10 trainees proposed to be selected would be required to undergo a 12 weeks' course of instruction during the present financial year (1927-28), and after completion of that course they would leave the Wigram aerodrome and follow their normal civil avocation until November, 1928, when a similar course of 12 weeks would be carried out. After the completion of these two courses the trainees who graduated would be posted as second lieutenants to the Territorial Air Force, otherwise known as the New . Zealand Air Force, and would annually attend camp for refresher training for a period of approximately 10 days during the succeeding five years. Trainees and graduates would be paid only for fiie time they actually were in attendance at courses.