PROS AND CONS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2970, 6 January 1917, Page 5

PROS AND CONS

AMONG THE KECRTJITS. The group of recruits, brought together by the blind hazard of tho ballot, •• awaited the pleasure of the Medical Board, and discussed, meanwhile,' the fortunes of the War, • the chances of battlo; and the pros and , cons of compulsory service. \ They 'formed a curiously .mixed- group. A wharf labourer, two general labourers, a draper's assistant, a shipping clerk, and a bar-tender. And tho topic upmost; in their minds, it appeared/was tho ability, or inability, of tho Government to turn them compulsorily into fighting- men. "Supposing we won't go? The Government can't something well shoot us all. The gaols won't.'old us all, and anyway the Work 'ero 'as to bo done." This in argumentive tones from a bur'v labourer, whose objection to service appeared to rest upon the fact that it was being forced upon him. Ho had something to say about "autocrats" and "a free country." "Oh, that's all fat and fine," said .the-wharf labourer. "They'll send you out to camp, and 'ow will yon look then,' explaining to the chaps that y're not frightened to go but y're don't want to go, 'cause of your principles? And-if yqu won't go, what is to stop 'em giving' you a job breaking stones or something of that sort all tho time the war's on? Nothing in this resisting, business!

"It's all in the day's work," said the bar-tender. "No'good grousing ahout it. There's all those thousands, of fellows gone away, and the'-Govern-ment has got to back them up with Reinforcements. Somebody lias got to go, and so hero we are, and that's all about it. If a chap kicks, ho won't get any sympathy from tho mon at tho front or the mon in camp, and anybody else much. If I'm passed fit. I'm going in quiet as a lamb." A little murmur of assent, indicated the general adoption of this' view. Tho shop assistant had something to say about tho ethics of volunteering,' apparently, in the. wav-of personal explanation, but this development of tho debate was not-popular, and there was' silence for a. moment as tho line of waiting recruits moved near the door of the examination hall. Then another aspect- of the immediate question was mentioned.

.-■ They ro not going to make any differences between us and the volunteers," said the other labourer. "All going to be mixed up in camp,' so they say. No need for a chap to,say how he came in at all if he doesn't want to."

."They, say the chaps at the front might be.a bit down on conscripts," said the clerk. "I saw a pretty hot letter from one of them the other day. Not quite fair, you know, because' overybody couldn't go at once. ... I volunteered once. Got turned down." "There will be all sorts in the Reinforcements and .then .they will < be' drafted into the Main, Body in England, so there .can't beany differences,"stated the seller of pins and calico. "Better to be-drawn now than after volunteering has stopped. There will be something said ithen. . . .• I hear they give a chap two weeks to fix up his business if he -passes.'.' - "What's the good of two weeks?" asked-, the objecting labourer. "A man can't'do'-'anything in tiro weeks. And look at the.pay. Fivo bob a day! "And found," said tho bar-tender "The pay is not so bad." \ "Well, what I say is ." But the door opened and the recruits moved in, fumbling, with coats and collars and preparing for the ordeal of initiation into the military craft.