THE GAPS IN THE RANKS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 262, 24 July 1918, Page 5

THE GAPS IN THE RANKS

i AUSTRALIA'S VANISHING BATTALIONS

AN URGENT APPEAL

Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash, who was recently appointed to tho command, of the Australian Army in I'rance, has forwarded to tho Director-General of Recruiting in Australia the following stirring appeal for volunteers which, owing to its urgency, was cabled out from london by "Mr. .Henry Koyes, who was formerly, vice-chairman of the Victorian Stato Recruiting Committee :—

"Since the opening of the German offensive in March every division of the Australian Army in France has been encaged, and always with •decisive success. I'ho men of .Australia, wherever and whenever they havo entered this mighty conflict, : liave. invariably brought tho enemy ito a standstill, and have made him pay dearly for each futile attempt to. press them on the roads to Amiens and the Channel ports. Their reputation as "skilful, disciplined and gallant soldiers has never'stood higher throughout the' Empire thnn it does to-dny. Those who aro privileged to lead in battlesuch splendid men are animated with a prido and admiration which is tempered only by concern at their waning numbers. Already some battalions which have made historic traditions have ceased to exist as fighting' units, and others must follow unless the Australian ,na : tion stands by us and sees to it that our ranks aro kept filled. We refuse to believe that the men nnd women of Australia will suffer their famous divisions to decay, or 'that the. young manhood still romaining in our homeland will not wish to share iu the renown <of their brothers in France.' Nothing mutters now but to fcee this job through to tho end, and wo appeal to every man to come, and come (illicitly, to", heip_ in our work and to share in our 'glorious en-; deavour." '■■• . A Soldier's Letter. Tho Australian soldier in tho trenches, with no private or political axe to grind, is apt to speak his mind very plainly at times regarding homo politics nnd the ardent voluntarists who aro permitting the men who proceeded to tho war to ' remain in tho firing-line unsupported. In a letter written from the front on May 11 a Melbourne man states:—"lt is only a question of a fow weeks .now when one battalion out of every four will be wiped out to fill up the other three—for lack of reinforcements from Australia, ffo havo had to spend J-t days continuously in tho front line, and in closo support, because other Australian tronps wero not here to relieve us. I must say frankly that I have, no timo ior the 'skunks and slackers who. prefer | (o stay behind and reap the benefit whilo j the other men do tho dirty work for | them. -I fed very strongly on theso \ points, because I havo seen men stuck j >ip in the front line for twice the length | of time they should bo, simply because there wero not enough men in tho batlalion to givo them a- 'relief.'" Tho pame writer remarks:—"l am not at all interested in Australian politics at present. I don't caro 'tuppence' whether Hughes is in powor.or whether the Labour crowd gets in. My opinion is that the crowd who were responsible for turning down conscription are not fit to govern themselves, and it would do them a terrible lot of good to have a crowd like the Germans to look after them for a while." .*• ■

Two furtlier letters written Tecently by soldiers to their relatives in Melbourne supply additional evidence of the view which is being taken by the men at the front of the recruiting apathy in Australia. In one of these letters the following appsaw:—"The impression one has of Australia after being away for !somo years is that it is in reality God's own country, • but the impression the exile gets from the written news hi that it really belongs to the devil. To have' cold feet must be a terrible thing. Australia is, extremely.',.fortunate .in not knowing that thero is a war on. If Australia felt the pinch, ns do the European countries, I wonder what the howl would be like. Yet in England and France thero is scarcely a murmur. It ■hurts to think that Australia is 'equiff"jS- The writer of the other letter, which was forwarded from Franco in May, remarks how sorely the troops of the Australian divisions aro in' need' of fresh recruits.- "Australia must Jμ, tuUof slackers,' he says, when mentioning how slowly reintorcements are going forward.