MORE MEN WANTED

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 15 December 1915, Page 4

MORE MEN WANTED

AND WANTED AT ONCE. URGENT APPEAL BY THE PRE> MIER. '..^ NATIONAL RECRUITING MOVEMENT. WELLINGTON, Dec. 14. "The Government has in preparation a scheme intended to bring into existence a well-organised national recruiting movemet," said the Prime :.'■•'•:i.•!'•,• iefc to-night. "Members of local bodies will be asked to assist, and the services of the representative men will be utilised. No part of the Dominicn and nc section of the community will be neglected. Without the information supplied by the war census, a scheme such as is cctemplatecl wculd hardly be possible, though I need hardly ay that anything in the nature of a breach of confidence will be avoided. Details will be made publie in due course; and the scheme will bo put into operation early in the Now Year. For the first time —partly I think, owing to the approach of the holidays—we are having a certain amount of difficulty in filling up the reinforcement draft at the propetr date. The seriousness of the war has now been brought home to this and every part of the Empire. Good meiV are 'needed, and in spite of the pessimistic forebodings which are sometimes hinted at rather than plainly expressed, I am confident, that the citizens of New Zealand will maintain their reputation for loyalty and capacity to make sacrifices for the Imperial cause which they have built up since the beginning of the Avar. Men are wanted, and wanted at once. I ask the boys who intended to go in with the 11th Reinforcements this week and who, I now find, have been waver-

ing on account of the attractions of the holidays, to do their duty. Under the circumstances that have arisen, T ask them to play the game, and to play it in serious and deadly earnest, so that victory in the fight may come to our side. T ask their psirents and relatives —and I know that in this I am asking a lot —not to place difficulties in the way, but to seize the opportunity of assiting the Imperial cause in the greatest crisis that British citizens have ever been ca'led upon to face." THE GAPS MUST BE FILLED. WELLINGTON, Dec. 14. . "I don't think there is any dcubt that the men will come fill the gaps," said the Minister' for Defence when the shortage for the 11th Reinforcements was mentioned to him by a reporter, "but it is highly important that men should present themselves quickly. Every day's delay is liable to mean reduced efficiency in the field, since it shortens the training period or prevents the men getting into the firing line as quickly as they would otherwise have done. I regret very much that the men have not all come forward to-day. I would ask those who are holding back until after the holidays, to consider their position seriously, and decide what is their duty. Every moment of the training period is of value. The despatch of reinforcements has been arranged according to a fixed time-table, and we have obligations to discharge to the Imperial authorities —and to the men at the front."