FOR OVERSEAS SERVICE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21815, 19 November 1940, Page 4

FOR OVERSEAS SERVICE

One-fifth Of Men In Class A Draw Will Be Finished To-day By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, November 18. Approximately one in every five men in Class’ A of the First Division of the National Military Reserve will have been selected for military service overseas when the first overseas ballot, which commenced this morning, is completed to-morrow. The men selected will provide the quota required for the Sixth Reinforcement of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. It was announced some time ago that there were 90,000 single men between the ages of 19 and 45 in the first division of the reserve, and it Is understood that the number between the ages of 21 and 40, the age group for overseas, is about 70,000. As 14,000 men are being selected, those balloted will constitute one-fifth of the class. The two ballots already held for Territorial service included those in Class B, that is, over and under the overseas age group. Men who were called for Territorial service in the previous ballots who have been found fit for overseas services will be transferred from the Territorial units to the overseas draft if called in the overseas ballot. Those selected for overseas service, after being found fit for Territorial service, but who have not started their Territorial training, will not be required to go into a Territorial camp. Territorials on home service who are in Class A are included in the ballot. Appeals Appeals against territorial training will not count for overseas service if the appellant is called for such service. Those selected in the ballot now being held will be placed under an entirely different obligation to that created by the selection for the Territorial ballot, and if there are grounds for appeal a separate appeal must be made. The medical examination of the men will be carried out as soon as possible after the men are advised of their selection on December 4, but as there is still a large number selected for Territorial service to be examined, those for overseas service are unlikely to be examined before the New Year. All those who enlisted for overseas service and those drawn in the first Territorial ballot who have been found permanently unfit have been excluded from the present ballot. These men have been transferred to the third division of the Reserve. Men who have offered their services to the Air Force and who are awaiting selection or medical examination may be drawn in the ballot, but if so the recruits selected should immediately advise the Ah’ Secretary and area officer in their military district. They will then be advised whether or not they have to submit themselves to the Army authorities for medical examination. It is officially stated that prosecutions are pending in cases where single men within the age group for the first division of the National Military Reserve have failed to register for service. Both defaulters and their employers will be prosecuted.