THE CALL TO ARMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2386, 16 February 1915, Page 4

THE CALL TO ARMS

Without popular agitation, without lie stimulus of any marked demonstrations or exhortations, the young men of New Zealand have answered and are still answering the call of the Empire for men to, bear arms on service abroad. By the end of this week, according to the official statement, the whole of the contingent to comprise the Fifth Reinforcements will be under canvas at Trentham, ready to undergo the' prescribed period, of training before they sail to join the other New Zear landers abroad. Some concern appears to have been created by the publication in our evening contemporary of the full text, with appropriate black lettering, of a circular now being issued by the Defence. Department relating to rccruiting. The sudden appearance of such a display in a daily newspaper has not unnaturally led people to suppose that the Defence authorities are faced with some new problem, to solve which some new effort is 'required. The circular has no such significance. Exporienoc has discovered weaknesses in the methods of enlistment hitherto used by the Department, and the circular merely remedies these. All that the recently-issued broad-sheet means is that the Department will for the future use slightly modified methods, with the object of carrying on the work of the enlistment of men with greater effectiveness from the point of view of Departmental, administration, and with the minimum of inconvenience to the men enlisting. All the facts that intending recruits need to know were set forth clearly in our news columns on Saturday. On 'this point the public may rest assured—the response to the call for recruits in New Zealand lias been quite satisfactory. This statement we make., on the authority of the Minister of Defence. No doubt it is necessary that the present rate of enlistment should be sustained, and so far as that is concerned, full publicity and proper encouragement to_ young men to come forward are highly desirable. It would-be wrong, however, to assume that there had been any failure to respond to the call made.