SOUNDING THE MUSTER CALL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2719, 14 March 1916, Page 6

SOUNDING THE MUSTER CALL

THE RECRUITING CAMPAIGN

FIGHTING STANDARD REVIEWED

A recruiting rally was held at Brooklyn last evening, Mr. Geo. ltoid presided, and the attendance was not very large. The chairman, introducing tlio (speakers, remarked that Wellington would have to bestir itself in the matter of recruiting,

Mr. W. Maddison spoke in favour of the voluntary system, and expressed the opinion that volunteers were better soldiors than conscripts. Some people, he added, might bo disposed to raise all sorts of questions, such as the tost of living. People who raised that question might leave it to the older men to deal with, and' might also bear in mind the fact that the' Government of the day had other things to think of iust now, and perhaps could not deal ivith the cost of living as tliey otherwise might. Quartermaster-Sergeant Brown said that he did not altogether agree with Mr. Maddison on the subject of cm£ Gcription. A conscript would fight when ho was driven to it. Quarter-master-Sergeant Brown remarked that be was a married man, and had enlisted from a sense of duty. The British nation, he reckoned, was slow to move, but would win in the end. Every garden had a percentage of weeds, but tlio Government could deal with them, and the man who was hanging back would be got at yet.

Mr. W. Perry, who is to go Into camp in April, declared that every man who could possibly get into the "firingline should at the earliest moment get there. The fact remained that Germany had prepared for war, and that that preparation involved a great deal of personal sacrifice, which bred discipline, which in its turn bred organisation, which gave Germany her con centration and her terrible power. We must recognise • that the only way to win the war was by drawing the Ger. mans out of tho countries they had in. vaded, and that they must be driven out by armed men. That was why wo wanted men, men, and more men. Why did we retreat from Mons? Through want of men. Why did we fail -at Gallipoli? Again, through lack of men.

Mr. J. H. Halliwell reminded those present _of the necessity of everyono doing his best to bring the war to a successful conclusion, and impressed on them the necessity for getting every available man to enlist.

Pte. J. H. Darby, a returned soldier, made an appeal in original verse for men to enlist.

On the motion of Mr. W. Maddison, it was resolved"That this meeting shall do all in its power to further the voluntary system of recruiting."

ROUSING APPEALS FOR VOLUNTEERS