RECRUITING PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2648, 20 December 1915, Page 6

RECRUITING PROBLEMS

♦" c DISCUSSED BY HON. J. ALLEN. By Telegraph—Preos Association. Auckland, Decomber 19. * The Minister of Dereiice, interviewed yesterday, stat-ed emphatically that he did not think there was the slightest likelihood of local or receiving oamps j being established. Such camps cannot produce efficiency, he said. "We have not the staff or the equipment. The results of the present' scheme are extremely satisfactory, aud°l should be ] doing a wicked wrong if I attempted to destroy it. The Minister went on to explain that it was very difficult to obtain suitable officers for training mon, and local camps increasing the need for such men would increase the difficulty. ] •The Minister emphatically denied that he had said he would call on tho willing men first for service.. What ho. had said was that if a number of men stated . they were unwilling to servo under the voluntary system tiiey could not be compelled to serve. 'Referring to the un-j willing men, the Minister said the position was not as bad as it seemed, and he gave figures of tho analysis of >500 cards . recently published. He said that .the J analysis showed that many of tho men were medically unfit, and others, had, ties which did not permit of. their serving. It was not right to prejudge the men. . Some might be , shirkers, rbut a great many were not. The Minister went on to foreshadow a iiew scheme of recruiting. The main principle would , bo personal contact with the men by recruiting committees. •At present Wellington had a splendid' Recruiting Committee, and Canterbury was preparing a good organisation on similar line 3. The projected scheme might include local bodies as recruiting committees. There was need of more committees- and-co-ordination of effort. Asked if the'system of the North making good shortages-in the South quotas was fair, the Minister said the past basis of quota assessments was wrong. ' In future assessments' will he based on 1 the actual returns of the National Rer' | gisfcer, aiid, he added, "I shall expect everybody to do their share. Up to the 1 end of October, on the basis of the 1 military register, Ofcago had done its 1 share." The Minister could 1 not say if there 'Was any likelihood of being ' called together : to consider conscription. ! It was certainly unlikely so long as the' ' voluntary principle 'fulfilled/require-. I merits. ' Conscription would' involve a ' question as to who should go to the front and' who was .Essential at home. Even now certain such as 1 coal-mining and woollen mills, were being protected. The voluntary system, oven with discrimination in the matter of enlisting workers, did not possess all ' the advantages of conscriptiort, hut ho 1 would not enter into a comparison of V. tho advantages of tho two systems. >' Tho Minister 1 said there was every ! likelihood of free railway passes being ' granted returned eoldiors He refused " to give details, but said instructions 1 would be issued by circular in a few " days, -