AUSTRALIA'S NEW ARMY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 4

AUSTRALIA'S NEW ARMY

When the Australian Prime Minister (Mit. William Hughes) announced his. intention of appealing to the Commonwealth for a new and additional army of 50,000 men a good many people expressed doubt as to whether the proposal could be carried out without some departure from tho voluntary principle. The country was asked to supply 50,000 troops for the purpose of forming new units of the expeditionary forces, and at the same time to provide the 16,000 men required each month for reinforcements at the front. But Mr. Huohes knew that he was not asking Australia to do impossibilities, and he would not hear of failure. Plans for the new recruiting campaign were drawn up without delay, ana the call for more men was sent ringing through the land by means of the Press and from scores of platforms. The response at. first was slow, but of late t has been most encouraging. Indeed, it has been so good that, according to a cablegram which appeared in yesterday's issue of The Dominion, Mr. Hughes is "cheerfully hopeful" that more than 50,000 men will be enrolled. The enemy's recent threat to destroy the Suez Canal and the development of events in the Persian Gulf region arc grim reminders to the people of Australia and New Zealand that the war is not so very far off 'as some' of us may hitherto havo been inclined to think.- Mr. Hughes put the position from the Australian point of view with great force at a big recruiting meeting held_ in the Melbourne Town Hall which Was densely thronged by sympathetic audience. He set himself out ruthlessly to dispel vain illusions and soothing fictions. He warned his audience against jumping 'to the conclusion that tho enemy is almost beaten, and that we can therefore slacken our efforts. It may be, it probably is, true, tha't Germany is coming to the limit" of her resources, but she has not come to them yet, and no one can say- with confidence when she will do so. But if, as. we think, she is weakening, then there ifc all the more reason to hasten the end and bring the war to a close by increasing our effort. This is what Australia's Prime Minister has been telling tho people of the Commonwealth, and it would bo a good thing if his words could be made to sink deeply into the hearts and minds of the people of New Zealand also.