CHANGING TO COMPULSION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2911, 25 October 1916, Page 4

CHANGING TO COMPULSION

Everyone will understand what Me. Massey had in mind when he . said in London the other, day that he was sure New Zealanders did not want forced men to fight side by side with volunteers. Yet tho remark suggests that his brief absencc j has already put him a little out of touch with ruling sentiment in tho Dominion on the subject of recruitt ing. In recent events, particularly , in tho Bhort recruiting of the last ! draft or two, in spite of very insistent calls for men, thore is a plain intimation that voluntaryism has . nearly run its coursc. It would be i a fino thing, as Mr. Massey has said, from a sentimental point of view, if the future historian were enabled to record that New Zealand had maintained tho principle of voluntaryism throughout this great struggle, "but aspirations of this kind should not bo allowed to conflict with considerations of practical policy or to impede the adoption of measures which are obviously neccssary and expedient. New Zealand has hitherto done so well under the voluntary system that there is a natur-al reluctanco on tho part of many to face the necessity, of compulsion, in the third year of tho war. But the question at stake is not one of sentiment, but one of practical policy. Tho one thing essential is that the reinforcement drafts shall be dispatched punctually, and at full strength, and indications at present are that this will not much longer be possible under a system of purely voluntary recruiting. Nothing will be gained by blinking at the facts. Nor is there any warrant for casting any general reproach upon the men who are likely before long to be compulsorily enrolled to fight for their country. _ The shirker who should have enlisted long since, and has not done so, is not, of course, entitled to respect, but ho is not by any _ means _ the only_ factor to be considered in the situation as it stands to-day. Of the single men who remain available a proportion have family and other responsibilities which place them in a position not very different to that of married men with families. The volunteers have_ carved out their own fame, but it would be unjust and unfair to I emphasise and accentuate the distinction between volunteers and men who will probably go out in future in compulsory drafts. We need feel no regret at resorting to methods of recruiting which are practically universal and are taken as a matter of course in the countries involved in the European conflict. Indeed, although New Zealand has a right to be proud of what it has achieved under the voluntary system, we can see now plainly enough that it would havo been better and wiser to rely from the first upon orderly methods of compulsion, and probably if the magnitude of the sacrifice demanded by the war had been realised in the first instance, •no other methods would have been considered. We have to maintain our reinforcement drafts at their full strength, but we have also to see that in doing so we do not deplete the country of that class of skilled labour which is required in connection with those special industries which enablo us to send food supplies, woof and other necessaries to the Allies, and the maintenance of which is also necessary to provide the money to meet the cost of our share in the struggle. With compulsion we can better ensure both these ends being served than was possible under the voluntary system.