Churches propose ‘fitting memorial’ to first world war dead
Churches call for armed forces recruitment age to be raised
Church leaders have called for the armed forces recruitment age to be raised to eighteen as a ‘fitting memorial’ to the thousands of young soldiers killed in the first world war.
Quaker Peace & Social Witness joined The Church of Scotland, the bishops of the Church in Wales, the Unitarian Church and Catholic, Baptist and Methodist groups in signing an open letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with the plea.
A new report from Child Soldiers International published on the same day shows plummeting enlistment levels amongst sixteen-year-olds and rising drop-out rates from training. The research finds that last year just 880 sixteen-year-olds enlisted in the army, forty per cent
fewer than the year before. Of all the sixteen-year-olds recruited by the army last year, nearly half (410) left during training.
Richard Clarke, director of Child Soldiers International, said: ‘It’s time for the MoD to recognise what more and more young people and their parents are realising – that enlisting at sixteen is not in their best interests. During the first world war the minimum age for recruitment and conscription was eighteen.’
The army has been tasked by the MoD to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of its recruitment of minors. The longer duration of training for minors and their greater likelihood of dropping out makes recruiting them more costly to the taxpayer. Child Soldiers International cites that in 2010-11 the annual cost was approximately £90 million more than if only adults were recruited
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