"SLACKERS" AMAZING ATTITUDE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 113, 26 November 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

"SLACKERS" AMAZING ATTITUDE.

The djihculties which recruiting officers experience in gett ng recruits under the voluntary system are exeinp.ilied in many peculiar ways. A remarkable conversation assays the "Montgomery County Times) took place on a farm not a hundred miles trom Weishpool the other duy, when a recruiting officer of the 23rd district called there to interview the five sons of the tenant. Four of them were eligible, as to age, for miltary service. The recruiting officer found the men busy hoeing turnips. The following is a plan and authentic account ot thy cuat that took place between the recruiter and his " quarry." At the outset the recruiter askea, '•Have any of you gentlemen ever thought of joining the Army?" They choroused a negative. The recruiter reminded them that men were badly needed for the Army. The eldest of the five, who became spokesman, at once flatly contradicted the statement. "No, they don't" he 6aid. "Lord Kitchener says they don't."

"Oh, now I suppose we have found the missing man," remarked the recruiter, ironicady. "You ought to be at the War Office, and Lord Kitchener ought to be hoeing turnips." The farmer's son then went on to say that the war would not be won by men, but by prayer and the help of the Almighty. His brothers endorsed this remarkable statement. All five said they were Sunday School teachers and Christians. They believed, they said, that the Almighty would be on the side of the Allies, and that the Allies would win. There was, therefore, no danger of Germany winning. The recruiter said, "Well, I believe thoroughly in the efficacy of prayer, but jf you went home and prayed to the Almighty from now till the day of Judgment to hoe those tufnips for you, He would not do it. The Lord helps only those that help themselves, and prayer of that sort would be wicked.' The spokesman-in-chief of the little party here introduced the question of compulsion, and declared: "If they compel me to join the Army and srnfl me to France, I wou!d not shoot a German."

"What!" ejaculated the recruiter in astonishment, would you let a German shoot you?" "Yes 5 " replied the eldest brother of the quintette, and added, unctiously, "I would not take human life.*' "Well, I should have a way of dealing with you," the recruiter, now thoroughly disgusted, told him. "I should shoot you a't home to 6ave you the trouble of going out there —to the front."

By way of a parting 6hot, the recruiter asked the anti-militarists if they knew the reputation! which their family had gained in the district. They replied that they did not know. The recruiter said, "It is the reputation of a family of cowards. That is why I called on yon. This parade of so-called Christianity and of prayer to God is only a mythical excuse that is brought to obscure the real issue." The recruiting officer then left the scene, and the farmer's sons resumed their peaceful occupation in the turnip field.