THE SUPPLY OF MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1915, Page 8

THE SUPPLY OF MEN.

NO EXTicA DEMANDS MADE. D).MIX lON'S FIXE RESPONSE. | Mi IRE MOUNTED MEN. J By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, June 24. To-day a representative of the New | Zealand Times brought under the notice j of tiie ■.Minister for Defence, the Hon. j .Tames Allen, file cablegrams from 'Afel- ' bourne, regarding the ' Federal Goveiu- \ ment'., call for additional recruits. One I of the messages attributed to the Federal Prime Minister a statement that I within the last forty-eight hours Great ■ Britain had "appealed for more men j with or without equipment." Senator 1 Pearce, the Federal Minister for Defence, 'is reported to have said: "The British j authorities have informed us that every man is wanted. It is not for you to ask I whether the Government can provide I uniforms. Every man is wanted whether the Government can provide uniforms or equipment or not." Mr. Allen said that no coninnmication of the kind described in the Australian cablegrams had reached him. j The Imperial authorities had not asked | New Zealand to send men over and ! above the drafts already arranged for, I and they had not indicated that unequip- | ped men were wanted. The commnnieai tions he had made public previously had I gone in the other direction; indeed,'their effect was that only fully trained and fully equipped troops were wanted from the Dominions. A communication from the Imperial authorities read by Lord Liverpool at a recent patriotic meeting in Wellington had stated plainly that j an increase in New Zealand's contribution of men was not desired owing to the j difficulty of providing additional equipI ment at the present juncture, j The Minister added that the position in regard to recruiting was very much more satisfactory in New Zealand than in Australia. He was inclined to believe that the newspapers had misinterpreted the statements made by the Federal Minister, who had been seeking to promote recruiting. New Zealand j had maintained the original physical standard, and had accepted men between the ages of twenty and forty years only, and had got the recruits faster than ■ they could be sent into camp. Australia had reduced the physical standard and was taking men between the ages of "eighteen and forty-five in the effort to encourage enlistment. New Zealand's position was a gratifying one, and ne believed the men of the Dominion would .continue to maintain it by coming for.wai'd promptly. i ,The Minister for Defence announced to-day that the Imperial authorities had asked New Zealand to bring j the reinforcements already despatched for mounted rifles to the same percentage as that of infantry, that was to say, an increase of from' If) per cent, to lo per cent, i ■ •■ month of the esfablishmint of mount' ' rides serving with the oxpedilionar- :'• iu the field. In round numbers V,,v ■ would in\ol\e the training and - 1 :rh of more ihan 1000 men in add'*' • - the regu- , lav reinforcement reipuien.eiits.