A DEFENCE BUNGLE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17283, 26 September 1916, Page 6

A DEFENCE BUNGLE.

The public will be amazed to learn that the Christc.hurch defence authorities were refusing yesterday to accept enlistments for service, applicants being asked to " call again." Tho twentyfirst draft of reinforcements, which should be mobilised for training by today, is several hundreds short of tho required number, and the chairman, of the Recruiting Board has issued a special appeal to local committees and to tho manhood of tho country for a prompt supply of men. Yesterday was to sco the beginning of a new policy under which enlisters wore to be sworn in for service straight away, thus avoiding the difficulties arising from defa-jlt to auswer tho summons to camp. It took a couplo of years to convince tho authorities that this course was the right ono to follow, although the sense of it must have been obvious to everybody else. At last, however, the responsible Ministers appeared to havo acquired reason and it was duly announced that on and after Monday, September 25, the oath would bo administered upon enlistment. But the day arrived, and instead of the reform operating—in Christchurch, at all events, and probably ohscwhere —men offering for servico were not sworn in, not even accepted at all, but actually sent away! Really, we dislike very much having to criticise men whose heavy duties naturally evoke sympathy, but we still moro deplore tho necessity and the cause. The only explanation of this extraordinary bungle which can bo supplied by tho local defence ,people —who are, of course, quite innocent in the matter and no doubt also indignant—is that the new regime requires the uso of amended registration forms, and thcse_ have not arrived from Wellington, but are expected " to-day or to-morrow." Meantime, five or six hundred moro men arc wanted in the training camps this very day to keep up to the time-table upon which the military staff is working. Possibly »ms bungle will have no moro serious consequences than tho delay of a few days, but it is terribly depressing to sco the country's most important business so grossly mismanaged. It will bo observed that instructions have been issued to withhold from tho newspapers particulars of quotas required and of the progress of recruiting, so that we are Mnable to give the number of men who'would have enlisted yesterday, or their names. There may be reasons for stopping information thatlias been published daily for many months, but tho methods of the Wellington authorities do not encourage us to look for good reasons. People who will order men away from the recruiting office at this stage of the proceedings may be expected to do almost ,-nything except the right thing.