NATIONAL SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1915, Page 3

NATIONAL SERVICE.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT. "MATTER RECEIVING MOST SERIOUS CONSIDERATION." (From Our Own Correspondent) Wellington, Nov. 4.

"I have received a good deal of evidence that the public mind is veering in the direction of compulsory service." said the Defence Minister (Hon. J. Allen) yesterday. The Ministe-r added that during his visit to Dunedin he had found the evidence to be overwhelming as far as the South Island was concerned. He had read letters on the subject from all parts of New Zealand and the matter was receiving most serious consideration.

When the subject was mentioned to the Prime Minister by a New Zealand Times reporter, Mr. Massey stated that he did not think the time for discussing a change in the system of obtaining recruits for the expeditionary forces had arrived.- The information that would be supplied by the National Register with regard to the resources of the Dominion of able-bodied men of military age was not yet available. Communications which had reached him showed that many hundreds of young men within districts that he knew well were preparing to do their duty. The discussion of compulsory service would raise very big questions indeed. The military authorities of tha Dominion are not alble to speak regarding methods of enlistment, as the question is one of policy to be decided by ihe Government and Parliament, but there is doubt that as a body they favor compulsory service. They argue that while the present system of voluntary enlistment has provided an unbroken stream of recruits of very high average quality, it has tended to absorb too large a share of the energies of the Defence Department, The strain is becoming -nore severe as the months pass. If the various recruiting organisations outside the Department could guarantee the iequired number of men for every month, the method of enlistment would not concern the Staff to any large extent. But it is another matter if the Department has to "hustle" for recruits at a time when every ounce of energy is required in connection with the preparation of drafts for service at the front.

The method of recruiting' in the event of New Zealand deciding for compulsory service would be that applied to the Northern States bv President Lincoln during the American Civil War. The Dominion, would he divided into districts, which might not conform with the present military districts, and a quota fixed monthly for each district.' The men of military age would he classified in the order in which they would be called up, the single men without dependents forming the first class. Then voluntary enlistments would be invited as at present. In the event of a district failing to find its quota, recourse would be had to compulsory powers. Probably the required number of men would he selected by ballot from among those in the first class. If that class became exhausted, men would be taken from the second class, and no on.