THE NATIONAL REGISTER
Before it is too late wo would again _ urge the Government to make it clear that all men who. volunteer under the National Registration Bill will be classified according to; their circumstances and responsibilities, and called up in the order of their classification. If 'this is done and the measure is properly explained to the people in the Press and on the platform, and in every corner of the country, we are con-, vinced this Dominion will'be enabled to provide a demonstration of practical patriotism of a' most impressive and encouraging nature, not only to_ ourselves, but also to our fellow-citizens throughout, the Empire. It is now stated that under the schedule of questions all men of military age are to bo asked:— (b) If you have not volunteered for service, are you willing to. become a member of an Expeditionary Force?
Every married man with provision to make for dependents, and many single men similarly circumstanced, will be in a quandary when answering this question. Willing enough to come forward in their turn, few of them would walk into a recruiting office to-day while so many tens of thousands of single- men without such t'ies are sti'l available and rallying readily to the call. The re-sult-will be that these'men will give | qualified answers—answers that will have to be sorted and classified, and that may. easily lead to much misunderstanding. All this could be avoided if the difficulty of men so circumstanced was anticipated. The thing could bo so easily done that it would be a thousand pities to spoil an otherwise excellent measure for the sake of so little. A few words at the end of the question as now set out would do it, thus:—
(b) If you have not volunteered for service, are you willing to become a memtor of an Expeditionary Toroe, provided you are grouped and called up (if required) with others of similar responsi-: bilities and circumstances to yours as set out in your answers above? This would smooth away very real difficulties for many men and would make the response to the question in the Bill a far truer criterion of the state of feeling in the country than could be hoped for otherwise. If the Government desires to have the great bulk of the men in New Zealand place themselves at the service of their country for 'war purposes it can go a long way towards getting them by a trifling amendment of its plans.
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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2578, 28 September 1915, Page 4
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416THE NATIONAL REGISTER Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2578, 28 September 1915, Page 4
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