COMPULSORY SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2605, 29 October 1915, Page 4

COMPULSORY SERVICE

INCIDENT AT A RECRUITING MEETING. (By Telegraph.—Prest Association.) Dunedin, October 28, At a recruiting meeting at tho Hillside Workshops to-day tho question which appeared to secure general approval was: "How could the Government reasonably expect to got recruits when men volunteered and their places were filled by eligible men from the Old Country and" elsewhere?" The Hon. J. Allen: "I think you must be wrong." Questioner: "You can findit going on at Hillside and elsewhero in the service. The men leel these things. The Government are not doing their duty; the.v are humbugging tho men." Mr. Allen replied that the Department was not under his control, but as far as he knew the places of men who had volunteered for service were btiug kept open. Tlie Government may have taken on temporary hands to keep the works going. Tlie Government would not neglect their duty to the men who had gone to the front. , _ • An elderly workman informed the Minister that the card was in his (Mr. Allen's) hands. Tlie great feeling of tho sheds was that the Minister should play it. Both married and single men wanted compulsion. Tho man who introduced the subject said: "There! arc no shirkers in this shop. The men are perfectly willing to do their duty, and -they would welcome compulsion." Mr. Allen: "I do not want to advocate .compnlsjon." Questioner: "Tho men here want compulsion; that is the feeling of the crowd."