The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1915. BRITISH RECRUITING.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 14 December 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1915. BRITISH RECRUITING.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.)

Nothing short of decisive victory would be likely to perturb Germany more than the scenes that occurred in London and throughout all England and Scotland on Saturday night. The life of the nation had slumbered, or there had been that apathy and slowness to respond to injury that is to some extent characteristic of the British people. War is detestable to Britons, they desire no territory that they have to over-run with fire and sword, and tlnfy will not make ready for a war they never wish to participate in only so far as the visible preparations of other nations compel them to do. Even then, as the present war has disclosed, they are still slow to show their full trength, and compulsion, it was feared, would have to be resorted to so that the ravages of a blood-, thirsty enemy might be curbed and he himself subjugated. The recruiting campaign under Lord Derby’s guidance ended on Saturday night, and to use the words of Mr. O’Grady, M..P, little short of a miracle has happened. It is indeed a happening that will spread consternation and dismay throughout the camps of our enemies and is a fitting, practical reply to the illogical bombast of the German Chancellor. No one, in or out of authority, expected the superb, magnificent result of Britain’s recruiting campaign. The rush of men, eager to face our Empire’s enemies, was so great that the facilities for enrolling them proved altogether inadequate, and all the usual attestations had to be modified, deferred or abandoned; official red tape was smashed, so says the cable, and all form and ceremony dispensed with so that the ealrnest, determined upholders of Empire might have their names put on the roll. Recruiting officers and clerks worked the whole twenty-four hours, many of them without intermission or refreshment and still thousands of names were yet waiting when “Big Ben tolled out the fact that it was Sunday morning. One office alone took eleven thousand names, and batches of five hundred men had to be sent away to other recruiting centres. Neither Lord Derby or the Government had made anything like an approximate estimate of the men that were coming forward and, consequently, bad failed to make the provision necessary for enrolling. As Sunday morning capae in ,the immense crowds cheered and recheered

with enthusiasm. Top-hatted city men mingled freely with East End costers and waterside workers; from seven 1 o’clock on Saturday morning till midnight the rush to enrol continued. Not i in London alone was this amazing enthusiasm shown, but it obtained similarly throughout the whole Kingdom. In Scotland memorable scenes occurred, the enthusiasm is characterised as tremendous, and was exclusive of no class, but pro-Germans. Presbyterian ministers in numbers enlisted; Divinity Colleges and Theological Halls .were emptied in the widespread determination to render helpless a foe that i s threatening the Empire’s freedom and the world’s civilisation. Recruits came from every class, no class was unrepresented; the whole nation arose in might to signify its unfaltering, inflexible insistence upon the crushing of a cruel and contemptible foe, and it is believed that a repetition of Saturday’s loyalty and patriotism is to follow on subsequent days. Ccnscriptionist newspapers as well as those with anti-consctriptionist leanings all loyally backed up Lord Derby’s Recruiting Committee’s scheme, which we are told was conducted with cheerfulness and undaunted courage, nothing in officialdom being allowed to stand in the way of signing on. But what does Germany think of it all? She has run out of men while Britain is m the enthusiasm of enrolling; she has to carry subtleties into small, fearing States cajoling them with insane promises into lending men, food and munitions, but the scenes at Britain's reemitting campaign will impress and deter at least some from the course that Teutonic lying and subterfuge had mapped cut for them. It seems that a new war era. a new phase of possibilities, has been opened up. The whole armies of the Allies will be heartened and encouraged, and what will be the effect on our own British braves, who have stood the brunt of the fight, and are still in water-logged miserable trenches guarding the Empire’s homes and honour? The determination of their fellows to come to their assistance in snch huge numbers will electrify them into new life; new hopes will arise, feelings of security engendered, and a healthy optimism will pervade the whole B’ritish war organisation adding much to its effectiveness both on and off the field. The British temperament resents compulsion, it is the same temper that resists conscription that resents and will increasingly resent the effort of Germany to secure world domination. Even the gratification of the nation s highest anticipations may not ren er conscription unnecessary, but it vn disclose to its enemies how resolute, determined and powerful it still remains. Von Bethmann-Hollweg may shout “We are invincible,” but. Germany started with her greatest strength. When the Allies’ maximum strength i s reached, even if it is by the adop- . tion of compulsion, Hollweg’s cry will have changed. The Balkan trouble is a mere side issue, and however much it may concern us now it certainly can do nothing more than prolong the state of inhuman butchery that German lust of power has precipitated.