35 MEN ENLIST

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21043, 20 February 1940, Page 4

35 MEN ENLIST

ACTIVITY YESTERDAY RESPONSE IN No. 4 AREA FIGURES SINCE WAR BEGAN Recruiting for active service overseas with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force received a definite impetus yesterday in the No. 4 'Hamilton) military area During the day 35 men enlisted, the greatest number in a day for irianv weeks. Although the date for the calling up ef the third echelon has not been announced officially, the indication* arc that the No. ■ 4 area will secure its quota of 375 men unless there is an unxepected slump in volunteering. Last week 62 recruits came forward in the area, maintaining a st%idy rate of enlistments which has not been remarkably brisk, however, during the last few weeks. Returns from the Army Department up to the .end of last week showed that 2057 men of all classes had enlisted for active service, with the addition of 132 Maoris for the special Maori Force. At present 245 men are available for the third echelon and more than 150 men will go before medical boards this week. Over 100 fit men are still required to complete the quota, but volunteering will have to exceed that number considerably to allow for rejections by the medical boards, and also the fact that men are frequently being drawn from the available numbers in order to go into camp immediately to fill vacancies in the second echelon, which is at present undergoing training. To'Camp Last Week Including men for the special railway and forestry units, the drafts to camp last week from the No. 4 area numbered 46 men. The number ol recruits since the outbreak of war includes 1550 single men of the ranks. Eighty-seven officers have offered their services, while 420 married men. 132 of whom have children, have come forward. Included in the latter class are 21 men with as many as five or more children. 25 with four. 48 with three, 115 with two, and 123 with one. No men with over three children have so far been called up. while only five men with three children have gone to camp to fill specialist posts. Already in Training The number already despatched to camp for the first and second echelons, prospective posts as noncommissioned officers in the third echelon, and other special duties includes 27 married men with two children. 51 married men with one child, 26 married men without children, 756 single men, and 45 officers. The return* show that 278 men in the area, who would be fit for active service, have been held back because they are occupied In reserved occupations. To date 1743 men have been before the medical and dental boards in the area. Of these 1395 were passed fit for active service in any part of the world. 155 temporary unfit, and 193 have been rejected as permanently unfit. Many instances of the eagerness of some young men to serve in the forces have come to the notice of arm" officials. One of the most marked occurred in Hamilton recently. A recruit came before the medical board to be examined, but just before leaving he suffered an epileptic seizure. A soldiers’ pay book fell out of the recruit’s pocket, and it led to the discovery that the young man had been discharged from the first echelon as permanently unfit after several weeks in camp. So eager was he to go overseas that he enlisted again under an entirely different name.