Evening star., 1944-05-13
Maryland Boards Gel
Orders 10 Stay Draft
|0f All Men Above Is

n oal OH lnouctlng men over
Is temporarily, to be certain mo
man is enormously inducted,"
was clamped on MARYLAND
boards today as Virginia lifted
its induction ban and gave local
boards the signal to start draft
ing older men VINO do not quail
lfy for occupational deferments
under the new draft regulations.
District Selective Service, which
mas had ban on calling men over
70 for the past month, has not vet
issued any new orders to draft
boards as a result of the new policies
announced yesterday.
Col. Henry c. Stanwood, Mary
land Selective Service director. ex-
planned that older men had been
going into the service in Maryland
While a ban On inducting them had
been in effect in some other States,
including Virginia.
Gives Boards More Time.
He issued the stop order. he said
to give his draft boards time to
go over all the cases of older men
and permit employers to file the
necessary evidence to warrant de-
ferment of men over Is.
Maryland boards planning to send
men yesterday, today and Monday,
he said, were notified by telephone
to hold out the older men. The
ban, he said, will be in effect until
the boards have made headWay
through their large file of la older
men and will be lifted simultane-
ously throughout the State.
In both Virginia and Maryland,
however, the opinion was expressed
that few men over 25 would be
drafted because most of them would
qualify under the more liberal
standards for occupational defer
ment.
Plan Deferments for "Over 25."
Meanwhile, Selective Service off,
cials were reported apprehensive
that too many older men might be
taken despite the new deferment
policy because local boards might
not adjust themselves Immediately
to the more liberal occupational
standards.
The Associated Press said in
formed Government officials esti-
mated that only 10000 to 100000
men over Is would be needed for the
armed forces for the rest of the year
and even that estimate may be high
If draft boards really tighten up on
deferments of farmers in the 1925
age group.
Selective Service Director Her.
Shey has expressed the frank hope
that most of the older men would
go out of IA into the deferred
classes so draft boards can concen-
trate on providing the armed forces
with the men they want-regis-
trants under 26
The first official statement that
men 80 and over in work in the
national health, safety and in
terest" could expect deferment
through 1914 came today from the
War Manpower Commission which
Informed its employment offices
that men in this age group are not
expected to be inducted for the
remainder of the year"
Action Hailed in Congress. =
Exactly how the draft boards will
act under the new regulations,
however. is still the principal un-
certain factor although the liberal
lied deferment policy for older men
was hailed by members of the
House Military Affairs Committee
as a step in the right direction, pro-
yided it is not changed or amended.
"Selective Service has at last
done what the Military Committee
has been trying to do for a year."
said Chairman May. He referred,
he SAID, to "the taking of regis
trants by age groups"
Had such a policy been adopted,
sooner, the Kentuckian added
much of the confusion of the past
several months could have been
avoided"
Representative Thomason of
Texas, ranking committee Demo-
crat. saw in the regulations a clari-
fication of the status of registrants
who, he said, heretofore did not
know where they stood in the draft.
They should, Mr.. ThomaSon said,
stop some of the confusion and
contradictory statements between
selective service and the War Man
power Commission.
This new order is proper and
good and will be all right if they
just let it alone and let it work"
commented Representative Spark
man, Democrat, of Alabama.
RAE Aro no,une 1Qfh Diana