Australian Recruiting Campaign A Failure, Claim Ex-Servicemen

Wanganui Chronicle, 13 November 1950, Page 5

Australian Recruiting Campaign A Failure, Claim Ex-Servicemen

SYDNEY, Nov. 12 (Reed. 7 pm).— Ex-servicemen’s leaders in Sydney describe the Australian recruiting campaign as a failure. They are Messrs B. J. McDonald (Federal president of the Australian Legion of Ex-servicemen), C. Austin (Federal secretary of the Air Force Association), and F. E. Peffer (State president of the Legion). Ex-service officials maintain the present recruiting organisation is out of touch with realities and that a new committee should be established. Tn the past six weeks, despite intensive advertising, only 4000 men have volunteered for the Services, and of these only 1200 have been accepted. Another cause for complaint is the case of Boleslaw Korpowski, a naturalised Australian citizen, who during the war flew 74 missions over enemy territory with the R.A.F., rose to the rank of squadron leader and was awarded the D.F.C. and the Polish Virtuti Militari. Discharged from the R.A.F. in 1948, he led the first group of Polish ex-service migrants here and became naturalised in September, 1949 He is president of the Polish branch of the Air Force Association. Despite his record he was rejected when he applied to join the R.A.A.F. because his parents were not naturalised British subjects.