OUR READERS’ OPINIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3987, 21 July 1915, Page 3

OUR READERS’ OPINIONS.

NEW ZEALAND’S DUTY

(To the Editor.) Sir, —On 9th July Lord Kitchener said to the people of Britain “the vital need -was more and still more men,’’ and yet they must hare somewhere about 3,000,000 men under arms. To do her share on a population basis New Zealand should have 75,000. She has 25,000 only. At the same time (including these! the men not required to produce and export our primary products number at least 75,000. So that apart from any question of what is her fair share New Zealand can spare another 50.000 at once.

And yet on 13th July the Minister said: '•He hoped there would be no attempt to interefere with the well-thought-out scheme (i.e., for the present reinforcements). He would lay on the table a memorandum on the whole subject by the Chief of the General Staff.” In that memorandum it is stated 1 : “We have to prepare for a war which may last for three years. It would be an everlasting disgrace to New Zealand if before the war came to an end she had to confess that she could not maintain her Expeditionary Force in the field. The honor of putting a large number of units in the field at the one time would bo forgotten in the failure to maintain them there. We must prepare for a long war, and it is essential that we should count the cost, and make sure that our resources of men are organised in such a manner as to last to the finish. New Zealand must not be exhausted before peace lias been declared.” Sir, this is rank heresy, and notwithstanding the great respect the country has for its author in his military capacity, and notwithstanding that it was put forward by the Minister, it must be utterly repudiated by the country.

Kitchener wants men. What on earth does it matter whether we can keep up our separate unit or not? For tliei sake of that unit we arc asked to refuse to send men.

The plain fact is that the country is getting no lead on the matter, and that if we, the people, do not instantly bestir ourselves we shall go down to history with an everlasting disgrace upon our name.

We have not provided more than one man to Britain’s three; we have not shared or offered to share the extra cost of the war over and above men; and now when the Mother Country is making an unrestricted call on her own sons we are asked to hang back. The memorandum was obviously prepared weeks ago, and it out of date on an absolutely vital point. It states “the Imperial Governipent up to the present has requested that allmen sent should take rifles with them from New Zealand.” Yet weeks ago •■'a reply came (i.e., from England) that if New Zealand sent the men to England they would arm them with rifles” (the Minister on Ist July). New Zealand refused. “The reason for that was that if we were to send men to train in England they would receive Imperial rates of pay and Imperial pensions, and there would be a serious conflict between the Non Zealand and, British sections.” If the British authorities arc satisfied to receive the men and arm them, what validity is there in the objection? The plain fact stands out that Kitchener has offered to arm the men we send and we won’t send them. How many men has France put in the field? Every available man Has she held her men back from’ 7 arming so that they can become reinforcements in two years? There would be no France to-day if she had adopted

any such folly. And if we do wc may become a German colony. Let the generals on tile spot arrange the reinforcements when we have supplied the armed men. If need he abandon outdistinctive New Zealand unit. But for God’s sake, citizens of New Zealand, sweep aside the present tangle and insist that New Zealand shall press on to send forward in the next six months at least 50,000 men. T am, etc., S. A. ATKINSON. Wellington, July 14, 1915.

THE WAR. AND EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

(To the Editor.) Sir,— Although the progress of the war is satisfactory, it must be admitted that, had we devoted moro time to preparing for it beforehand, we should have done far better. This lesson should be laid to heart, and wo should now' prepare for putting the affairs of the Empire in order after the war. The one great outstanding need is the better distribution of the Empire’s population. The fact that New Zealand was, a century ago, worth nothing but is now worth 500 million pounds is due to past immigration, mainly from Great Britain. The excess number of arrivals over departures during the past decade has been about 8,000 persons, and had the flow of immigration been double, her prosperity, her acreage under crops, her wealth, her exports, and her manufactures, would all have increased in proportion. _ She could now have exported not only more meat and dairy produce but also corn, instead of having to borrow some of that which otherwise would have been available for the supplies of our armies at the front. The Prime Minister’s expression, "AH we-are and all we have,” would have had a double significance, and the Dominion’s contingent to the troops at the front could have been doubled. The patriotism and generosity of the New Zealanders have astonished the world. After the war these should survive, for it will be work and not gifts which the people at home will need. As Mr Lloyd George has pointed out, a great pressure of. unemployment is to be expected on the conclusion of peace; and work will* be needed for defence against starvation, poverty and physical deterioration. Then the best and most* enduring i way for New Zealand to aid the distress which otherwise will be inevitable in that somity o ( f nations known as the British Empire will be to take some of our surplus labor to work on her surplus areas, so that both may; be employed to the fullest advantage. By this means she dan increase our food supplies and keep down our Poor Rate, and at the same time provide for her own defence by the introduction of efficiently trained troops, and'

reduce the burden of our war taxation by increasing the number of shoulders to bear it. We can only avoid a wai in the Pacific by being prepared to defend our empty areas of productive soil. The transference to Europe of much of our labor has led to older men being employed and to work being available for all at considerably higher wages than prevailed before the war. The effect op the physique and appearance of the people, adults, youths and kiddies, is a conspicuous feature of the conflict. It is for New Zealand and other dominions to say whether this is to continue or whether employers are xo exploit our boys and oxsoldiers at low wages' to the exclusion of these other men and of the thousands of maimed and wounded who will be seeking for work. The latter would be able to act as messengers, lift-attendants, bottle-washers, labellers, packers, clerks and shop-assist-ants, but these jobs will bo taken up by boys who can find no other outlet for tlicir energies unless they are absorbed overseas.

The first duty of the Government ol New Zealand is obviously to provide work for all of tlicir own forces who return to civil HFe, but surely they can arrange that all vacancies by death in their Expeditionary Forces arc filled on the return journey by fit men who wish to enlist from Lord Kitchener’s army, which is to be discharged as soon as possible after the war. This would provide labor for the land, and their consuming capacity would increase employment in the towns. They would willingly under take to repay their fares out of wages after arrival, but cannot save anything out of their shilling a day pay, half of which, in innumerable cases, is assigned to their relatives, so as to qualify them for a Government subsidy. New Zealand was one of the prizes the Prussians coveted. Are her saviours to be excluded because they were bc.rn at Home? THE BOYS. The Imperialism of the boys is unparalleled. All the best, who could go, at the age of sixteen and upwards, have enlisted by overstating their age, and cases of boys joining the ranks at the age of fifteen arc frequent. None of these wish to return to their former indoor occupations and narrow lives. When, therefore, there arc situations for which no local labor is applying, will not fares be advanced to help out such boys from Home Most of those who came out in the past" have enlisted and proved their sterling worth.

THE FUTURE OF NEW ZEALAND

The one thing needful for New Zealand to become a great nation is to double or treble her population. Now is her great opportunity to do so, and at the same time to prove that the Empire is indissolubly one, not only in arms but in labor also. The extension of her urban employment also depends on the expansion of her rural population. If one farmer in every throe would take an ex-soldier boy during the two years after the war is over, some twenty thousand could conic out, and after 'they had repaid their fares they could nominate their sisters (and other boys’ sisters as well, if the nomination system is extended to embrace them), and thus assure the destiny of tho Britain of the South. They would also spend £l-00,000 a year on clothing alone. If they stay Here they will decline and deteriorate, all' the improvement wrought in them by their time with the colors will be lost, the opportunity will, wo hope, never recur, as it is due to the war, and New Zealand will be kept back in her development. Tho boys, moreover, will have to take work to the exclusion of the Empire’s wounded, for employers will not employ a wounded man when he can get boys or girls to do tho work more cheaply, although a leg-wounded could do labelling, packing, laying on, or other stationary jobs, and a man with a. wooden arm coukl go messages. Is the Empire to be one in peace as well as in. war? What is New Zealand’s reply?

I will write to you again concerning War, Widows and Orphans.— Yours faithfully, THOS. E, SEDWICK. 33 Oriental Street, Poplar, London, E. Empire Day, I°ls.