The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1915. RECRUITS STILL WANTED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 75, 27 November 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1915. RECRUITS STILL WANTED.

The stern necessity for keeping up recruiting for our reinforcements as a plain duty to the Empire, ought now to he fairly apparent to everyone, and we certainly must take no notice of any peace talk emanating from inspired German sources. Jf Germany wants peace on the lines that German Socialists believe—or pretend to believe—that an indemnity from England must he one of the terms, such a foolish idea must he shattered by a still heavier blow, and as the Allies have never weakened in their resolve to go right on until German militarism is crushed, we must play our part like men. There is undoubted evidence that there are still large numbers of able 4 bodied men of military age, without any real tie, who have not. yet enrolled, and in some way their duty must be made clear to them. No man able to undertake the niuch-to-be-deplored but very imperative duty when occasion arises, of fighting for his conntry, should be permitted to shelter himself behind others with a firmer sense of right amf duty, though possibly carrying far greater responsibilities than the man who evades service. A southern journal recently gave particulars of a case in Southland where a man anxious to volunteer advertised for someone to take his place in a business of which he was part proprietor at a substantial salary. He received live hundred applications, and of these over three hundred were sent in by unmarired men. If the state of things such a case reveals is at all common wo cannot avoid conscription, and the sooner it comes

along the better. It was very well pointed out in a debate in the llous£ some few weeks ago by a Christchurch member that however strong the argument in favor of our voluntaryism may be in time of peace, tire only course open in such a war as this is to adopt the system which will raise the strong- j est army in the shortest possible time. IF volunteers will not come forward in sufficient numbers, then compulsion must be introduced.