NEW RECRUITING SCHEME.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1915, Page 3

NEW RECRUITING SCHEME.

VOLUNTARYISM TO HAVE A FURTHER TRIAL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 21. The Government, as the details of the new recruiting scheme indicate, has decided that the voluntary system is to be | given a further trial. The Prime Minister _ himself is convinced that a sufficient supply of volunteers can be secured for many months to come, if the recruiting organisation is made wide enough and the men are approached in the proper way, and lie is prepared to devote a large share of his attention in the near future to this task. One gathers that the Defence Minister is less hopeful than his political chief regarding the prospects of keeping the ranks full by voluntary enlistment, 'but he joins Mr. Massey on the recruiting board. The third member, Sir Joseph Ward, believes that the voluntary system should be maintained as long as possible. The test is going to come within the next six or eight weeks. The Eleventh Reinforcements went into camp short of their full number eight or nine days ago and they still lack some 450 men. The military authorities attribute the trouble to the holidays. If they are correct in their assumption, there should be a rush of men in January, including the hundreds of registered recruits who declined to join the Eleventh when asked to do bo. A shortage for the Twelfth Reinforcements in January would shake the voluntary system; a shortage for the Thirteenth, in February, would wreck it.

The Recruiting Board will make a vigorous and determined effort to get the men who are . wanted by voluntary effort and with the success of Lord Derby's scheme to inspire them the Ministers need not anticipate failure. But it may be said confidently that they will not carry their scheftie beyond the point where failure becomes evident. They realise clearly that the recruits must be found promptly and they will not hesitate to ask Parliament for powers of compulsion if there is delay in filling the ranks of successive reinforcements in tlje New Year. The Defence Department wants some 2200 men every tour weeks. The Recruiting Board will stand pledged to get them, if not in one way, then in another.