TO HELP RECRUITING.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2471, 26 May 1915, Page 9

TO HELP RECRUITING.

SHORTER TRAINING PERIOD ADVOCATED. (To the Editor.) Sir,—ln view of the demand for recruits and also in view of the fact that suitable men are not coming forward for onlistment as quickly as was hoped, 1 should like to express my opinion as to the reason for the slow enlistment. My business makes it necessary for me to visit tho country districts at frequent intervals, and from conversations I have had with numerous young men who are in every way suitable to go to the front, I gat-luff that the real trouble is the time it takes to get men actually into the fighting line. A man enlisting to-day cannot hope under the present system to reach the fighting line in much under six months. Many of them say tho war will probably be over before they get there, which, means that wo have given up our business or employment as tlie case may be for nothing. If the Defonce Department could arrange for a shorter period of training so as to enable men to reach- tho front within thi'eo or four months at the outsido from the date they enlist I am convinced that the recruiting would increase enormously. The answer that the Defence Department will give to this will 110 doubt bp that it is 110 use sending partly-trained men to tho front. My reply to which is as the war has practically resolved itself for infantry into firing from trendies and bayonet work, and as instruction in both shooting and bayonet work can bo taught during the six weeks' sea voyin both during this time and the month age, many men can be made efficient or six weeks which would be spent previously at Trentham. A number of the men now offering have either been through volunteer corps ill t'lio past or the Territorials of later years, and therefore are not quite "greenhorns" at the work. We must remember that all men leaving now go to join the main body, which has already seen active service, and will give reinforcements the necessary bark-bone to keep them together in a fight. I feel quite sure .that this is the principal trouble and that anything the Defence Department can do to shorten the tune from the reoruiting office to the firing

line will make all the difference to the number of men offering.—l am, etc., H. F. M'NEILL. Wellington, May 25, 1915. WHOSE DUTY IS IT TO CO TO THE FRONT? (To the Editor.) Sir, —In answer to F. S. Golding'ham re the above, his stand as chairman of the Recruiting Committee seeniß very funny—as well ask a soldier at tho front whether he should fire at the enemy or bolt. Now, sir. ho that hesitates is lost. Sir, if you go to the river for a bucket of water, don't stop to consider where the water is to come from to roplace what you are about to take. _ The gap will fill. A soldier's duty is a firm step—and forward.—l am., etc., HENRY WALTON. Waikanae, May 25, 1915.