FILLING THE RANKS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2623, 19 November 1915, Page 6

FILLING THE RANKS

SHIRKERS AND OTHER HITTERS

VIEWS OF OUR READERS

(To the Editor.) A SPORTINC OFFER. Sir, —As there lias been a lot of talk on the subject of recruiting and shirking, I wish to make this olfer to those people who are in t'nc habit of crying shirker loud and long. To the man who is too old to enlist and who says if I was only ten years younger, or tho true patriot who, through physical' disability or infirm itiis cannot servo at the front, but who perhaps would like to be represented by proxy, as it were, I offer to take their place if any one of them is gamo to assist mo financially in the squaring of my affairs before enlisting. The sum required is only a moderate one, and the editor of this paper is authorised to give my name and address to 'any bona-fide person.—l am, etc., PROXY.

17tli November. Somewhere in New Zealand. [Wo hold tho address and references of our correspondent.! CONSCRIPTION. Sir, —As the war has been going on for over twelve months .now, and" tho end not any nearer (as far as we can read) I think it is time Parliament assembled and brought in conscription to make every able-bodied man fight for the freedom and liberty handed down to us by our ancestors. We should all sorve our King and country, married and single (single especially), but there are hundreds of married men in New Zealand, ex-permanent artillery and R.N. Reserve• that are well up in gunnery, and are just the men to have amongst what you would call raw' recruits, because men who have had several years' training have many points ti show tho man of three or four months' training. In a speech a short time ago. Baron Kato said England was slow in bringing her full force to bear on the enemy. Therefore, I think it is time wo put our full strength into the field to crush Germany's mad militarism.—l am, etc., READER. V/HO ARE THE SHIRKERS? Sir,—l hope you will excuse the liberty I am taking in writing this letter to you, m the hope that you will find spaco for it in your daily paper, which I know is read in the remotest corners of the North Island. I see that there is a lot said about tho shirker. I read of returned men denouncing peoplo for being shirkers, calling everybody that does not happen to be wearing the uniform a shirker and a jotter, and I feel that it is about time that someone on the otlier side has had something to sav iu the matter.

1 happen to be amongst the many who have not gone to the front, who liavo not returned from tlie front, but who liavo handed in their names and aro prepared to fight and to die for their' country. I served for twenty months in the late Boer War, and was never a, day off duty, was always on tile active list, and my experience in South Africa enables me to judgo who tho shirker is. We liavo men who in Newtown Park, Wellington, had a fot to say, who put on as much side as clowns in a circus, but when tho firing lino was reached thoy woro missing". Then when wo returned they had all to say; thoy had killed more lJocts and done more brave deeds than anyone elso, while, to tell tho truth, they had never been under fire. Tho brnvost man we had on tho boat when wo left Capo 'I own for Durban on tho way back, who called tho Tommies that

were on their way to the front cowards

for not going to the war earlier, was the oniy man who was missing from' his post one night when the camp was attacked, and in looking for him I found him under the supply wagon behind tho oat sacks.

Now to-day there, are men who have returned from the front, or near it, who aro calling every man who has not got into harness yet, shirkers and rotters. I would like to ask you who is tho shirker? Tho man who goes into camp, leaves for the front, takes tho credit and-honour that is forcod upon those who enlist, only to return without doing anything for his country, or tho man who would he glad to go who would, fight to tho end when lie got there, who every hour of tho day is fighting with his heart, with his very soul, as to whether he is tin* best soldior by going to tho front or by remaining hero and doing tho duty that lie has agreed to do, that is provide for those that aro depending upon him. No doubt there are numbers that have no ties and who are slow to wake up to the fact that their duty lies at tho front.

My own opinion is that the biggest shirkers are the powers that be. They have a duty to perform—that is, to put tho mon in the field to crush our enomies, and they have shirked that duty from tho 6tart. They have left it to tho people. The young boy at 18, 19, and 20, who is quick to rush away on the impulse of the moment, but who will never stay the distance, and the. man who feels that ho has done no good here and will shako a load off his shoulders by going, are embraced. These aro not the men who aro going tn settlo the oneaiy. Tho young boy will find that the spirit is willing hut the flesh is weak; ana tho other fellow will find his heart is weak. Every mother's son should be told to be ready to go, and the men who ara most matured should he sent, according to their responsibilities hore. When tho powers that be have the courage to do their duty and put the thousands of matured men into the field we will bring the war to a speedier and more successful termination. And we will have a smaller burdon to boar in the way of pensions. As it is, there will be hundreds, yes, thousands of men, boys spoiled in the forming, wrecked with disease and olimatical conditions who never will be any good in the field. Not that they were not willing and eager to fight and die, but because the young and unmatured organs could not' figH against the enemio's of Nature. Theso men must get a pension, and when tlio weighing-in comes off the men who liavo hold of tho reins to-day and w'lio have failed in their duty to their country, will have a very serious charge to answer. Can we save them from themselves? And wake them up to the fact that conscription is tlio only thint; that will bring victory to our homes. If tlie men at tho front were'' as halfhearted as the powers that bo about doing their duty we must go down.— I am,. et-c.,

W. FORBES, Ex-Sergeant-Major.