AUSTRALIA'S CALL FOR MEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 38, 8 November 1917, Page 6

AUSTRALIA'S CALL FOR MEN

ANOTHER REFERENDUM ON CONSCRIPTION

FEDERAL CABINET FACES

THE ISSUE

„,, . Sydijey, November 7. mo conscription tide is rising A number of State Recruiting Committees are resigning as a protest against tho continuation of the voluntary system. Melbourne, November 7. lho University Council has resold to wgo enlistment by all students of military age. Mr. W. Jf. Hughes (Prime StinwKtr) declines to make a statement on the nosi £on till after to-day's Cabinet meetin.Press Assn. ""

CABINET OPINION DIVIDED.

(liec. November 7, 9.20 p.m.)- ; Melbourne, November 7. •lie lederal Cabinet is discussing tile niilitnry situation. Ministerial opinion regarding the conscription issue j s divid ed. Some favour an early election; others a second referendum.

Mr. Hughes declined to make a statement of the Government's attitude beyond remarking ihat the Italian situation was tho niOst serious crisis since the Jfarne. "The presentation of the case is so grave as to be full of most ominous portents," he said.

CABINET'S DECISION. (1-Jec. November 8, 1.10 a.m.)

Melbourne, November 7 Cabiuet has decided to take another referendum on the conscription question —Press Assn.

25,000 MEN SHORT

RECRUITING- FIGURES. Professor Jlacintyre, the chairman of the Now South Wales State Recruiting Committee, who recently returned to Sydney from Melbourne, stated that the war situation and the conditions of recruiting in Australia presented a contrast which could not be viewed with equanimity by any person in tho Commonwealth. There was no justification for the easy assumption that wo could bo ready to throw up our hats tor victory. On the Eastern front, continued tho chairman, Germany was doing prottjr much as she liked, and when she liked, and it was manifest to all that for all practical purposes Russia was eliminated as an active factor ia the war. We should ask ourselves what that meant, in the light of our own grent expectations nt the be;rinning of tho war, when wo talked loudly about "tho Russian €team-ro!)er." We could not but rejoice at the splendid fighting qualities of the British and French troops on tho Western front, and the successes tnov had recently gained were real and full of promise for the future.- In these successes Australia had borne a -worthv pan, yet while we talked about 'he exhaustion of Germany's reserves, she ovidently regarded the situation on the Western front so confidently thjit she had transferred an enormous proportion of her troops and fighting , material from the Russian front—not ngninst the British and French— but in Southern Europe tigainst tlio Italians. It would bo folly to say that in the face of this war situation Germany was on tho point of collapse. As a mutter of fact, she commanded tho whole east of Europe, and was seriously threatening n successful Invasion of Italy. Australia, he ndded, must view her ehaTe in the war in the lisht of these facts, andi it uonld be worse than useless—it would be absolutely unpatriotic—to slur over the fact that in this desperate hour of the Allies' peril Australia was sondioir fewer and fewer reinforcements. The Government had lnid it down that 7000 mpn a month was tho quota required to keen our divisions at the front up to strength. Though every effort had .been made to icconiplish this, nnd while recognising that the siicoess attained had been considerable, tho fncts were that, bosed on I his requirement, we wro 25.0(10 men (short at the end of last September. Since thfn the disastrous industrial unbimvol had overshadowed the grent interest of this world war. nnd more recently the Commonwealth hod not sunrlied even 50 per cent, of its nnota. Tndeed, at the present moment New Zealand was sendini more men to the front as reinforcements to her division thnn we were sending to 'nalcp up the wastage of a force nominally five times Concluding his romnrts, the chairman said Hint il was nb?*lutelv necessary for Austrnliato realise the seriousness of the situation, nnd -whither wo were drifHn<r. Whatever pledges were given by poliiicnl parties, Australia's plerisrn. consecrated in the blood of her nob'fsr. w«* "Hie Inst mnn nnd the last shilling." That was Australia's pledge overshadowing all else.