BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1915, Page 5

BRITAIN.

LORD DERBY'S CAMPAIGN. ■PREMIKK TO make A STATBJUSXT. London, Dec. 27. A special meeting of Cabinet was held on Monday, Lord Kitchener attending, to consider Lord Derby's report. It is understood tha£ Mr. Asquith will make a statement in the House of Commons upon the result of the campaign, possibly after the Christinas recess. MR LLOYD GEORGE. INSISTS ON COMPULSION. Received Dec. 28, 8.50 p.m. Loudon, Dec, 28. Tlio Daily Mail states that Mr. Lloyd George insists upon compulsion of the unmarried men, and that lie threatens to resign unless Mr. Asqttith's pledge is renewed.

CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICES. ' London. Dec. 27, At special Christmas Day services Canon Wilberforce, Archdeacon of Westminster, explained his prayers for the German people. We are not praying, he said, that they may not be vanquished or punished, but that they may bo emancipated from the curse of Prussianism and strike off the fetters of the cruel military despotism which oppresses them.

Dean Inge, at St. Paul's, called the nation to a great campaign of economy. They must face the certainty that Great Britain would emerge from the war very poor. To do something useful and to make good what they had lost would make the present a wholesome training school for the next generation and their tims. ;

Canon Carnegie said the most painful lesson of the war was Britain's lack of strong intelligent leadership. Tlie selection of men to lead the nation should have 'been more in the hands of the people.

THE RECRUITING CAMPAIGN. DETAILS OF ITS PROGRESS. London, Nov. 5. Lord Derby's new recruiting scheme is promising' well. Men are rolling up in their thousands all over the country. The provisions by which men between 20 and 40 are allowed to enlist in schedules according to their age and family responsibilities, to be called on only when their turn comes and other classes of younger and single men have been exhausted, is an admirable one. It is proposed to issue khaki armlets to all men of service age who have served, who have offered to serve, or have been starved for home war service. This will make the position of eligible men who refuse to their duty most invidiously conspicuous, and it is not likely that the class will be found to be a large one. There has been some talk of a great rush by young men to join the R.A.M.C. and other non-belligerent services. I am in a position to say that there is not much truth in this, and that a general charge of that kind would he a gross libel m the manhood oE this country. The ' .eßent rush to enlist does not mean that men who could serve and ought to have served have been holding back in large numbers. It means merely that scores of thousands of men who were keen enough to fight if they could felt impelled for the sake of their dependents to make no move until it was quite certain that at any sacrifice their services must be given to the country. One recruiting officer tells me of the case of a splendid fellow who offered himself for enlistment. He said he had made up his mind that, though it meant great sacrifices for others besides himself, he must come forward now. But he made it quite clear that he wanted to fight. He was bent on joining a regiment where the casualties were pretty thick and likely to continue so. He was asked if he could ride a motor bicycle, and replied that be was "top hole" at motor biking. But he added suspiciously that, if he gave up his job to join the army, he was going to have a fight for his money. No Army Service Corps for him. The recruiting officer, recognising that he was in the presence of a real "sport," asked him what was the matter with the despatch rider's job. The recruit asked what their work was and what the risks amounted to. The recruiting officer graphically informed him, and lidded that during a big fight the average life of a despatch rider was not worth mush more than throe hours' purchase. He had to ride up through the shot and shell to the advance line with his messages, and the job was so precarious that each message wa3 sometimes triplicated and scut by three, different hands in order that one at least might arrive safely. The new recruit's face lit up with enthusiasm and he smacked ihe table with a hefty fist. "That's my job!" he exclaimed. "Half a mo', governorj I'll be back in a minute." He vanished from the recruiting office, and the recruiting officer confesses that for a moment he cherished treasonable thoughts about a good man. He thought he might have been play-acting. What actually happened was, and the story is authentic in every particular, that the new recruit came bustling back in high glee to join as a despatch rider, and brought back with him eight paU of the same kidney. These men wtre friends associated in their daily work, who had discussed the situation and decided to join, but only on an approved guarantee that they would get "right in it."