The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1915. URGENT APPEAL FOR MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1915. URGENT APPEAL FOR MEN.

The serious position occasioned by the falling off in the number of recruits for the New Zealand Reinforcements is naturally causing considerable anxiety. Why this cooling off process should have set in is difficult to account for. The more troops the Dominfon has sent" to the front, the greater the necessity for keeping up the reinforcements. It is a serious reflection on the manhood of the country that the required number of recruits is not being kep't up, and it is a distinct breach of faith with those who have gone to the front to bear their share of the defence of their land and all they hold most sacred in life. It may not be sufficiently realised that this war is just as much a struggle by the Germans to secure the domination of New Zealand as it is that of Belgium or France. The safety of the British overseas dominions depends on the issue of the war just as much as does the restoration of Belgium to our brave allies. The confidence that is felt in the ultimate victory over the enemy is entirely based on three essentials—men, money and munitions, and the only weak link in the chain is that of an adequate supply of men. The insistent demand of the Imperial authorities is for men—more men—and still more men, for without men it is of no use having the money aud munitions. Hitherto, New Zealand has done splendidly in answering the call to arms, but for some unexplained reason the registration of ; recruits has degenerated into a. most discreditable dribble. The Defence Department urgently requires a thousand men to register at once, and this appeal should be forcefully brought home to every eligible young man in * the Dominion. We cannot too strongly emphasise the necessity of keeping up our promised reinforcements, for in the near future will arrive the crisis of the war. The suggestion that men* are holding back merely because they wish to enjoy the Christmas holidays is beyond all comprehension. In normal times such an excuse might serve as a reason for not entering upon their ordinary avocations, but in a time of dire peril to the country and to the Empire, when a few thousand men might turn the scale in favor of victory, the selfish plea of holiday making is unworthy of any member of the British race. Apart from this there are fellow New Zealanders now at the front to consider, and it would be an act of treachery to withhold the help that they are relying upon from those whom they left to follow in their train. We cannot believe that the eligible men left , in New Zetland are devoid of a sense of

the (lunger thai is caused by their holding back, nor is it reasonable to assume that they are either callous or cowardly. But it is distinctly unpleasant to And that the need exists for strenuously urging these men to do their manifest duty. The country is a pledge to the Imperial Government to provide monthly reinforcements for training and despatch to the front. It should be a point of honor with every eligible man to respond to the appeal tfcat has been issued by the Defence authorities. Fewmen, we believe, would like to be in the category of those who will only enlist if forced so to do. There should in New Zealand be no justification for compulsion, but the only way of maintaining the voluntary principle is by justifying the confidence of the authorities that the requisite numbers will be regularly forthcoming, and now is the time when this should be done,