The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1915. FOR THE EMPIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 22, 26 May 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1915. FOR THE EMPIRE.

f'TKe'call to stand in the battleground is still urgent in our land, and for the first time since the beginning of this mighty conflict the New Zealand Government lias felt it to lie its duty to say that recruiting for this last call for infantrymen is not satisfactory. The Wellington District alone appears to have done well, but Auckland, Canterbury and Otago are seriously short in fcheir quota. At this present time there are about '21.000 New Zealanders under arms, and as the census taken less than four years ago showed that the Dominion possessed 110.000 unmarried men of military age, and 78,000 married men between the same ages, there should certainly be plenty of unmarried men able and willing to take their place in the ranks. Where are the 80,000 or 1)0,(100 odd eligible* H In some cases, we fear, they are avoiding an i obvious duty. If the single men do' not voluntarily come forward, the only j thing left just'now is to appeal to i the married men. and this is being done by the Minister for Defence. ' lint it certainly is undesirable from every point of view that young married men who are supporting a wife and family should be permitted to go to the front until a further call is | made on the single men. It has been suggested by the Minister for Defence himself that there may be some-, tiling wrong with the regulations as to medical fitness, or the way they are interpreted in different centres, rather than with the spirit of the men. This does seem so when one reads that as against live per cent, of rejects amongst those offering in Wellington oil the grounds of medical unfitness, there are twenty-five per, cent, in Otago. When the Minister . i makes the enquiry he has promised, he will probably liiul a little too much red tape and iron hound regard for re-' filiations is turning down many desirable would-be soldiers amongst the gallant young men of Otago and some j other places.