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Show APPEALS Oil TIIE FIRST DRAFT THUOil OUT Major Easby-Srr,ithf Legal Expert of General Crowd-er's Crowd-er's Staff, Explains Details De-tails of New System. EXPERTS WILL BE PUT INTO SERVICE Men Disqualified for Fighting Fight-ing at Front May Not Be Exempt From Certain Other Duties. By International News Service. WASHINGTON, Nov. IS. Men who have been drafted and have appeals from the decisions" of the local board pending pend-ing will have their ca.ses automatically thrown off the boards by a. new ruling of Provost Marshal General Crowder in connection with the complete revision of the draft regulations. Major Easby-Smlth, legal expert of General Crowder's staff, who, with Colonel Colo-nel Hugh Johnson, did most of the work in revising and reorganizing the draft system, today explained that' all such appeals ap-peals will automatically cease to exist, as the man will be returned to his original orig-inal status, that is, to the position he was in before being called before the draft board. He will be sent a questionnaire. If his replies to the queries in that booklet book-let indicate that he should be granted the deferred classification for which his present appeal will be made he will be so classified by the board. Should the board decide, however, that he belongs be-longs In class 1, subject to Immediate call, he will be ho notified and will have the right of appealing to the district board for such deferred classification. Text of New Rule. The text of the new rule whereby the secretary of war is authorized to draft into immediate service for special duty any man believed from the record to be qualified for such duty, no matter what his classification or his order number in the draft, is couched in the widest terms. As given out by the provost marshal general gen-eral it follows: "The deferred classification of experts and men highly skilled in industry or agriculture fs intended to prevent the waste Incident to Induction into military service of men whose special qualifications qualifica-tions render them more valuable to the national interest in some other capacity. capac-ity. "There are, however, circumstances in which the need of the military establishment establish-ment for men expert or expertly skilled is such that the uational Interest is better bet-ter served by inducting such men into military service than by leaving them engaged en-gaged in industry or agriculture. In, such circumstances neither deferred classification classifi-cation on the ground! of engagement in industry or agriculture or the order numbers num-bers heretofore assigned by lot can be permitted to defer the call of such men into military service." In Special Class. The provost marshal general made clear today that because the new regulations regula-tions provide that men not completely crippled may be held subject for special army service and will not be exempted, this does not moan tha t the army proposes pro-poses to fill up its ranks behind the lines and on routes of communication with semi-qualified men. Such men will be put In a special class a.nd can be called only under a special and specific summons sum-mons for men disqualified for general military service, but qualified for special spe-cial service. This ruling applies to thousands of men suffering from flat feet and similar minor deformities which would disqual-ifv disqual-ifv them from field service, but which would not interfere with their operating a rmy motor ca is and other such work, or on line of communication duty. It also applies to men under weight beyond the possible entrance allowance or whose state of health, as verified by physicians, would render them unavailable for service ser-vice in hard weather. Exemptions Cancelled. Under (he previous service thousands of exempt ions were granted on these grounds. These are now all cancelled f-nd the men will have io again undergo physical examinations not only at the hands- of the local board examiners, but bv a special medical board of seven as well. In order to eliminate all wast1 of time in handling the draft, physical rxam-inat rxam-inat ions will be the last work to be taken up under the new system. TCnch man will be card-indexed and classified regardless of his physical condition, in accordance with his answers as to his economic status. Only when he is actually called for service in the order of bis classification and "draft number"' will he be put under phvpical examination. The old system called for the physical examination first and in thousands of cases boards had to examine men such as ministers, federal officers and others legally exempt before dealing with other aspects of their cases." This process is now reversed, and where in the past a board might have to examine twenty-five men before it could secure one subject to service, it now has only to refer to its records and call that one. |