VOLUNTARY SERVICE, AND ENLISTMENT OF IMMATURE MEN.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2679, 27 January 1916, Page 6

VOLUNTARY SERVICE, AND ENLISTMENT OF IMMATURE MEN.

9'i", —Under our voluntary system are ) not too many youths of immature age filling up tlie ranks of our Reinforce-ment-s? Tlie men should be, if possible, between 25 and 40 years of ago. About 20 or under, tliey are, as Mr. H. Belloc points out in "Land and .Water" for November 6, ed with older men. It would do perhaps much for national service if the Government _ would let us know how many men just twenty, or nominally twenty, we nave sent to tho war, with She idea that by so doing we are keeping our word to the Imperial Government? National service would prevent the "scrapping" of young lives by dysentery, etc., would prevent the moral ruin of men too young to withstand the temptations of the East, would relieve tho medical service of much treatment of the sick, and would enable us to keep our promise of recruits in spirit as well as in deed. No doubt it is better to send men of twenty than none at all, hut "England expects," etc., and our duty is to send men from 25 to 40 years of age. Only national service can effect this.—l am, gt<j, GRACE FOX. Dunedin, January !M.