BRITAIN'S RECRUITING PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1915, Page 4

BRITAIN'S RECRUITING PROBLEM.

Something approaching a crisis appears to be developing in Britain relative to the conscription question. 80 far, the results of Lord Derby's campaign, which was undertaken in the hope and with a view to the voluntary system providing a sufficiency 01 enlisters to meet the requirements of the war, have not been divulged. Efforts are being made to further extend the time for recruits to come forward, and thus give the laggards—especially those among the single men—an opportunity to swell the lists under Lord Derby's scheme; it being hoped that the ranks of the single men who have not yet enlisted would then be practically exhausted. The question has bt':u complicated by the pledge given by the British Premier (Mr. Asquith) that the married men shall not be called upon to serve until the unmarried men have proved insufficient for the purpose. Another factor that has to toe taken into account is the provision that has to be made for the retention in the country of the. necessary men for industrial work, especially as to munitions, and for maintaining the export trade, on which the economic life of the country is founded. Finally, there is the acute question of conscription looming ahead, and it is matter for great regret that it is being made use of for political purposes, even the Cabinet being divided over it. The anti-eonseriptionists appear to be working for a dissolution of Parliament, on the ground that such an I important change as the institution of compulsory service should not be made without the question being referred to the electors for their decision. Such an attitude denotes a lamentable falling-off in public spirit. There is but one aim and object 011 which the people of Britain, and of the Empire generally, should concentrate their whole-hearted support, energy and resources at the present time—the defeat of our enemies. The Allies are severally and collectively pledged to pursue the war until absolute and complete victory is achieved. Surely it follows an a matter of course that the means for attaining' the desired goal' must be provided, u;ul the Government should he trusted with full power to do what is necessaryeven by compulsion, if necessary—to accomplish the end-in view. To advocate a general election for the reason that it will educate the public on the war situation, and on the flimsy pretext that it will bring- forward sufficient new men to break down the corrupt party system, is making a burlesque of the most serious trouble that has ever menaced the British Krapire. The war cannot be won without a sufficiency of men and munitions, and of necessity these must be provided. Party systems are beside the question altogether. Time enough for wrecking tactics after the war, but there should be neither time nor thought spent on such trivialities while we are in the throes of an upheaval that will materially alter the map of Europe, possibly that of Asia, and while the very existence of the British Empire is in peril. If the shirkers and laggards remain obdurate to the call to arms they must be made to realise their duty, whether they are in Britain, in New Zealand, or any other pare of the Empire. No Britisher likes to be driven to perform his duty, hut unless he willingly carries out his obligations there, is only one alternative, which is force, and the application of that lever, distasteful a.-i it may he, becomes an imperative duty if victory is to be won.

SfeßsStJirred P^ ills of FUaders and in $!8 ffafcswejt ravines of the Balkans, wi| be largely won or lost in the workshops of the large industrial «nt3re» of England. The workman in J&is stained overalls and equipped with ;ust strong inusoles and a love for his daily work, is playing to>day just as gitat a part, as his fellow-countryman \*ho, in his! khaki uniform and rifle in hand, is tak-1 ing his place in the very forefront of'j battle. One's daily life provides a lam-: drcd parallels, The stoker working in] the depths of the stokehold so that the i battleship may be propelled, and that butter and cheese from New Zealand and other parts of the Empire may «>e placed on the London market; the miner, taking his life in his hands, descends into the very bowels of the earth that coal might lie procured to provide the battleship or the medium of commerce with its "staff of life. While these are obvious facts, it would appear that some section? of the masses of workers in England completely fail to realise what great factors they are in welding together and keeping in motion the great military machine of men anOf catinon, which must he used ceaselessly, and with increasing power, to roll across the north of France and the fields of Belgium, until these lands are rid of the barbarous hordes of Germany. It is not enough to cheer several army corps off to the front, and then turn home with the remark, ''The Germans will feel it when those chaps get there." The Germans would not feel this apparent weight in the scales to an appreciable extent unless the quota of men was accompanied by an equally strong quota of • artillery and munitions When an army corps- leaves England's shores, the workman should ask if he had done "his bit," if he had given that army corps "shells, more shells, and still more "shells," and when the workman can reply, "Aye, aye, sir," for several weeks and months, victory will be brought nearer. Nobody knows this better than Mr. Lloyd George, and he set the workman in his true position when he told the trade union leaders at Glasgow on Christmas morning about "the German workmen's great victory." To quote his remarks:

"When * the Russians,, early in 1015, conquered Galicia and threatened to over-run Hungary a change came over the German factories which were bußy throughout the winter, pouring in a torrent of guns and. 1 shells that pierced the lines and'drove back the Russians. That.was the German workmen's great victory."

The surface interpretation of that sweeping turn made by the Austro-Ger-man forces was a brilliant move by splendidly-trained soldiers. To a certain extent it was, but, primarily, the groat drive; the force of the tide which met the Russians, really came many miles from the firing line—from the workshops of Germany. And that is why Mr. Lloyd George describes this move as a victory for the workmen rather than for the soldiers. There have been parallels on the other fronts. When the Anglo-French armies forged ahead last September people said; "That is Kitchener's Army at work," but really it was a united move by Kitchener's soldiers and Lloyd George's workmen. That was a taste of what workmen can do, but when they come to better appreciate their important part, to grasp the need for unity, and to realise that the harder they work the shorter will be the war and fewer will be our losses, then we may confidently look to see Britain's workmen forcing the German soldiers to realise their tenacious hold on France and Belgium. It will then go down in history that victory in the Great War was won just as much in the workshops of England as on the blood-snaked fields of Europe.