CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1915, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE NATIONAL PERIL. To the Editor. Sir, —Your correspondent with the euphonious nom de plume, "Ikirat," does not auswer ray contention in his letter to you on Friday. He animadverts strongly upon the duty of tho manhood of the country,' whether married or single, to enlist. My contention is that it is an economic mistake and not right to call upon the married man before the ranks of the single men are depleted. There are tens of thousands of single men—the exact number the National Register should soon show—eligible for service who are hanging back, for what reason goodness only knows, but if they don't recognise their manifest duty at such a critical time as the present they should be compelled to. As for jthe young man who is marrying now and hiding behind the skirts of a woman, I, with "Tkirat" agree that he is a fit subject for contempt, but the married man with family and other ties is in a different category altogether He may be wanted, and when he is no doubt he will respond willingly, but exhaust the others first. That is my argument, and I notice since I saw your correspondent's letter that it is an argument Which is appealing to the authorities at Home. Chiozza Money is one of the leading economic and financial authorities of Britain. Writing to the British Weekly, he regards it as an egregious mistake to enlist so many married men when single men are available. He estimates that "at least 400,000 too many married men have been rciruited, and that the eonsequent separation allowances cost at least £500,000 a week, and adds that that means that the war is costing £25.000,000 a year too much, to leave pensions out of account, and to say nothing of the deplorable social problems created when, through wrongful recruiting, you make every day hundreds of widows and orphans. The economic position would be the same in New Zealand. By all means train vour married as well as single men. Tlie sooner the better. The position in Europe could hardly be worse, and it may mean the mobilisation of the manhood of the British Empire. Regular drill should be enforced at once, but the first to go should certainly be single men, not married men with wives and families.—l am etc -> PATERFAMILIAS. '