Statement by the President Announcing a Reduction in the Draft.

THE WAR DEPARTMENT has recommended, and I have approved, a request to the Director of Selective Service to reduce inductions immediately from 80,000 to 50,000 per month. This figure will provide only sufficient men to support the forces required for occupational duty and to permit the relief of long-service men overseas to the maximum extent transportation makes possible.

In justice to the millions of men who have given long and faithful service under the difficult and hazardous conditions of the Pacific War and elsewhere overseas a constant flow of replacements to the occupational forces is thought to be imperative.

Mathematically and morally no other course of action appears acceptable.

Transportation by air and sea should make possible the release from the Army of five to five and a half million men during the next twelve to eighteen months. It is too early to propose definite figures for the occupation forces which will be required in the Pacific twelve months from now or what reduction it may be possible to make in the strength of the Army force now allotted to occupation duties in Europe. It is apparent, however, that we can release as many men as can be brought home by the means available during the next year.

The present problem, therefore, centers on the readjustment of personnel now in uniform and the induction of new men through Selective Service to permit the earliest possible release from the Army of those men who have long records of dangerous, arduous and faithful service.

Requirements for future induction into the Army will be limited to the lowest age groups which will provide the numbers of men required. Preliminary estimates indicate that the age groups under 26 will satisfy this requirement.