DOMINION'S BIG TASK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 268, 22 April 1915, Page 7

DOMINION'S BIG TASK.

MUST SUPPLY 18,050 MEN. WITHIN NEXT TWELVE MONTHS. New Zealand lias undertaken to increase her Expeditionary Korce by two new battalions of over 1000 men each, and new artillery, including a howitzer battery, making up to 500 men. These will be quite apart from ordinary reinforcements, which we are sending at the rate of about 1000 a month to main, tain our existing units in the field, and to bo kept up to their establishments will itfli to be regularly reinforced as wcnv*under Field Service Regulations, Part 11., the new units, like the original British Forces, will require to take their first reinforcements (calculated at the rate of 10 per cent.) with them, which will bring the total strength of the new force when it leaves New Zealand up to about 2750 men. After that the two infantry battalions, to be kept at their full strength in the field, will have to be reinforced at the rate of 15 per cent, per month, or 180 per cent, per annum. ,To reinforce these new battalions, therefore, New Zealand, over and above her ordinary reinforcements, will have to find .1(100 men during the following twelve months,' assuming, of course, that the war lasts that long. . Thjji, with the original personnel of the new battalions, makes an approximate total of 5800 men for the first year. The artillery also must be reinforced at the rate of 5 per cent. per month, or 60 per cent, per annum, making a total of 850 men (including original strength and Ist Reinforcements) for the first year. New Zealand, accordingly, must raise an additional ofiso men to meet her obligations during the first year of its operation. This must be Tegarded as something of an undertaking, but it is only when it is remembered that we have to supply reinforcements at the rate of 12,000 per annum for the existing force that the full value of the new engagement can be appreciated. In other words, New Zealand, in addition to what she has already done, is committed to raising and training 18,650 men for service at the front during the ensuing twelve months. INTERESTING COMPARISONS. New Zealand's latest engagement, it fs understood, will place her well ahead of what Australia and Canada on a population basis are doing from a military point of view. To make up an equivalent, Australia, with close upon five times the population, will require to send 13,000 men, while Canada, with seven times the population, will require to supply 10,000. Compared with Creat Britain, with forty-five times the number of people, New Zealand's fresh effort is equal to a contribution of 123,000. The proportions, upon a population basis, are very much i'ncrcas'ed when the reinforcements for the now units during the first year are taken into consideration. Including these, •Australia, to equalise New Zealand's fresh effort, would require to contribute some 33.(100 men, Canada 46,000, and' Great Britain 299,000. The figures given are certainly impressive, but become still more so when considered in relation to what New Zealand has already done. In men in training and actually despatched from her shores New Zealand, in personnel though not in composition, has already raised some 20,000 men, so that by the end of April, 1916, assuming that the" war lasts that period, she will, by her increased effort, have supplied an approximate force of 40,000 men, or the equivalent in personnel of one whole army corps. For the retf of the Empire to do the same in proportion to population, Australia would be obliged' to despatch close upon five army corps (200,000 men), Canada seven army corps (2"80,G00), and Creat Britain forty-live army corps (1,800.000 men). What Australia, Canada and Great Britain will have done by April, 1916, remains to be seen, but in the meantime it may be mentioned that Canada has declared that she is prepared to arm 300,000 men and more if necessary, while Australia has intimated that she will despatch every man she can train and equip. Included in Australia's efforts to date are no fewer than six infantry brigades, which, carrying heavier reinforcements than any other arm of the service, will swell lier total very considerably.

THE UNITS MOST REQUIRED. Another aspect of New Zealand's latest effort that should not bo overlooked is that it provides just the class of troops that are most required at the front—infantry, which Sir John French has been pleased to describe as still "The Queen of Battles," nnd artillery, which must be regarded as a vital arm in what has been declared to be "an artilleryman's war."—Wellington Post.