THE NEED FOR MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 18, 13 January 1915, Page 8

THE NEED FOR MEN.

OUR LOSSES ESTIMATED. Lord Newton, speaking at « recruiting meeting at Salford recentl;. said 'he did not know that the countr.y grasped even yet the gravity of tllie situation, but having recently had an opportunity of visiting the French and English lines, he felt that he did grasp it. Along a 350 miles front he did not suppose the Uritwh position could be more than 26 miles. There the task was very severe. The Prime Minister, who would be the last man to deceive the country, said there were 57,000 casualties, but at •present there wore more like 80,000. Some, battalions had lost all their officers. One crack battalion was commanded the other day by a quartermaster, and two divisions, representing roughly 87,000 men, uiad been reduced to 5300. He did not see the wisdom of hiding theM facts, he i;id see the wisdom of urgently impressing upon the nation that reinforcement; were urgently required. ;C'liooos!.) Threats of a German invasion were spread l>v Germany iii. the hope that they would induce us to keep our soldier* at home, but the ; device was transparent, and would not : succeed. (Cheers.) I A captain wrote: Oh! if we only had ; rren now. They will have to send Ter- ' vitorials at- once. T think. I doubt | wheth&r people at home really realise the wastage. We as a battalion have I been lucky, but we have now lost in killed and wounded 14 officers and just on 000 men; then sick raise the numbers still more, so everv man is wanted, | and a law should for'iid a football being /kicked.

From a stall' oilicer at the front: I There is verv hard fighting going on. ; just about the hard st there has been since the war began. I only hope that the casualty lists you are all reading J will. bring home to the people of England that this is no picnic, and that no 1 waiting for the Russian advance will . suffice. Men is what are wanted, and plenty of them, for with quick-firing arI tiliery of large calibre and high exploj sivc shells and machine guns there must I continuously be very large losses. We j are getting men, but w-e want more badly, also officers; so preach everywhere I what 1 have written and impress on all i that the longer the delay in sending men the longer the war will last.

A flight-lieutenant in the E.N. Flying (V'vps wrote:—The war seems to be going on fairly well for us, but I hear from very reliable sources that the casualty list is shocking. It is an awful carnage. We want every able-bodied young man we can get, otherwise God knows what will happen to England. And, what is more, the country requires them now; not to go abroad, but to train. A halftrained officer is worthless, a halftrained Tommy little better, and it takes quite a year to make even a moderate officer, I hope Mr. Asquith will tell the country straight out what is required, and what has been done, and make them realise how serious this war really is. England is still asleep, and refuses to give Sir John French and Admiral ,Tellicoe the assistance they so earnestly need.