The Dominion. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1915. THE CALL FOR MORE MEN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2574, 23 September 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1915. THE CALL FOR MORE MEN

The request of tho Army. Council that-No\r Zealand shall dispatoh moro men to tho' front will surprise no oiie who has followed with any intelligent, scrutiny tho course of events in the theatres of war. What is surprising is that wc should not have anticipated and forstalled tho' request. In order to, meet the call it is now proposed to compress the training of between 7000 and 8000. men at present in camp and about to go into camp into two and a half months instead of the usual period, of four months. This means strenuous times ahead for our volunteers, but such handicaps aro just the thing to put New Zealanders on their mettle, and we havo no doubt that the men. will get thek shoulders to the wheel and show what they really_ can do at a pinch. At the'same time, it is unfortunately true that many of the?e reoruits whose training period is to be thus curtailed have been waiting for months on the Department's register of accepted recruits. . Despite the increasing seriousness of the situation in Europe, and despite our heavy casualties, in the Callipoli campaign, the Minister's fixed ideas on tho subject of our war policy have oaused him to present an adamantine resistance to all suggestions that men should be taken into preliminary training camps, as. they volunteered, or that facilities for training in spare hours should bo afforded theni. It has been contended that our instructional staff is sufficient only to deal with reinforcement drafts on the past scale, and to train the Territorials. Important afi it is that the Territorials should bs ti'aiaid to rkfoncl fcfysh', K in x&are .to pom it u inamtota

moro important that every opportunity for oarly and complete training should be offered those now about to do battle. •, We hope that steps will lio taken to see that henceforth every recruit 011 the books is given a chance of getting into training of sonio sort without delay. The logic of facts has upset the original war policy of this country, and wo have been slow to recognise the full extent of the changes needed. It will be necessary for the 'Defence Minister and the Government to further readjust their ideas in certain materia! respects if tho full requirements of the situation are to be satisfactorily met. Wo referred in these columns last i Saturday week to the tendency of tho Minister of Defence to cling too stubbornly to- fixed ideas, and wo I gave instances. In Mr. Allen's statement in Parliament yesterday there emerges another of them. The [ Minister, after stating that more recruits were wanted, said he did not | know whether platform work would bo needed, "but lie hoped it would not.". On what ground docs Mr. Allen base this extraordinary aversion to platform work 1 Is it not the simple, duty of every public man worthy of tho name to impress upon the people the urgency of tho present orisis ? How else is the country to bo stirred to realise the | imperative need for action 1 Me. Lloyd George the other day said that a public man "who shirked the facts of the situation, or did not do his best to foroe others to face them until they were redressed, was "guilty of high treason to the State." These are strong words, and we have no doubt the Minister of Defenoe would be the first to endorse them. Which, then, is the_ _ better attitude. . that 'of avoiding recruiting meetings as one would the plague, or that of using every available means" of rousing the nation to its inmost corcl If apathy and indifference won wars then by all means let us do without recruiting meetings, but until they do let us follow the example of Lord Kitchener and the innumerable public men who in the Mother, Country, and every Dominion of the Empire save New Zealand, have not hesitated to stump the oountry and sound the call to arms. Something, of course, has been done in this way in New Zealand, and it is to the credit of those who have so served tho na.tion; but there has been no systematic effort of this nature in , this Dominion. We hope that in view of t.hs very plain intimation By the Army Council that more men aro wanted, and wanted now, the Minister of Defence will free himself from the trammels of a set of preconceived ideas as to our war policy, many of which, though excellent in tho past, no longer fit the facts. The heavy casualty rate at the Dardanelles did not begin yesterday, nor last week, but months ago, and it did not need much, divination to .discern some time back that more men would be welcomed there, especially in view of the fact that .our Fourth and Fifth Reinforcements were sent post haste to fchefiring lino as soon as they arrived in Egypt. The Council's message not only makes a definite call upon us for tho immediate future, but it also shows us more clearly the magnitude of tho task that lies ahead, and tho urgency of the obligation resting on ua to concentrate tho whole of our energies oh thosi matters which directly bear on that task. The'young men of this Dominion have answered magnificently to the oall made upon them, and we have not tho slightest doubt that tho appeal now sent forth for greater reinforcements to relieve and strengthen their gallant comrades in tho fighting lines in Gallipoli will meet with a .ready response. The request, though it may come nominally through the Army Council in, London,, in reality represents a call from our own flesh and blood, bur friends and brothers, our daily acquaintances of a few months ago, now-doing deeds at the Dardanelles which for heroic valour compare witb the • greatest achievements ever recorded in history. They want all the help we can send them. We owe it to them to send .every man who can possibly be spared from the essential industries of the country to lighten* the heavy burden they are now carrying. Who is there able to go who can hang back in such circumstances a s these ?'