LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3081, 11 May 1917, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CLASSIFICATION OF SECOND DIVISION

Sir,—The classification of tlie Second 1 Division as approved cl by the Cabinet) tlio other day surely : rails for soma comment. Is the object of the Government to raise an efficient body of men! of tlio greatest possible use wherever they may. be sent or simply to send away 2500 men every month whether good; bad., or indifferent? lt„seems as! though tlie latter were the case. The military experts at the front say that they require most urgently men 08 from 21 to, 35 years of age, and that men of 40 or upwards are of little or no uso at the front, being unable to stand the work in the trenches. Our, Government is holding back a -very, large number of this most urgently, needed class ou account of the mim-< I ber of children the man lias on thei" ground that it is a greater hardship to leave a wife and four children thatt to leave a wife and three children and! so on down to a wife alone. This seems to me to be sentimental nonsense. If « home has to be broken up and a wife or wife and family left, tbo hardship is very great and very real ia either'case, and will not admit of diM fcrentialion. , ." , If the Government is sincere in its) desire to win the war, why do they not} 'get the mpst useful men first and xeW cognise the facts which all other coixn-< tries concerned have recognised, that ai man's usefulness as a soldier is deter-* mined entirely by Jits ability to stand the strain of trench work, and not bjl the number of children he may possess ?. Further, on the ground of national efficiency many.of wie most responsible! (and therefore most difficult to refill); positions are held by older men on account of their larger experience. Trusting that some abler pen than! mine may take this subject up, and thanking you in anticipation for youc courtesy,—l am. etc., EFFICIENCY. May 6/ 1917. '