CALL FOR MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1916, Page 3

CALL FOR MEN.

THE FINAL APPEAL. WILL VOLUNTARYISM FAIL? By Telegraph.—Press Association, Feilding, Last Night. The Defence Minister paid an official recruiting visit to Feilding to-night. Mr. Allen gave a stirring open-air address to a crowd of three or four thousand, and he got a splendid hearing and hearty cheers. He said this was the final appeal under the voluntary system. They wanted men up to 'the '2oth Reinforcements, and he hoped voluntary effort would render compulsion unnecessary. If compulsion came in eligible men who had married within the past six months would be first drawn upon with single men.without dependents. He urged all people to help in the work of having placed on the register men who had evaded registering so that if compulsion came these men would not escape. EXTRA DEMAND FOR INFANTRY. THE ESSENTIAL UNIT, (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, March 24. The Defence authorities are emphasising their need of infantry recruits. The'rearrangement of the proportions in consequence of the formation of a third New Zealand Infantry Brigade in Egypt means that cacli Reinforcement will "contain rather more.than 80 per cent, of infantry. The remaining 20 per cent, will be made up by the mounted men, artillery, engineers, ambulance and army service corps, and the requirements of these branches will be .-omparatively small. The difficulty is that the men who enlist are still allowed to choose their, branch of the service, with certain limitations, and scarcely half of them select the infantry.

_ "It is very important that the position should, be clearly understood by the men," said a headquarters officer to' vour correspondent to-day. "The recruit'who chooses the infantry is stepping into a place where he is wanted. We shall be able to use his services quickly, and he will liave the satisfaction of" knowing that lie is marching with the main body of the army. The issue of battle depends upon the infantry to-day, just as it did when the great campaigns of the past were in progress. We want a limited number of men for the Mounted Rifles, 'and a few tradesmen for the Engineers. Recruits for the Artillery, Ambulance, and Army Service Corps are rot wanted at all at present, since the lists contain enough men for many months to dome. Unless a recruit lias some special qualifications entitling him to turn to one of the other branches, his duty i§ to; enlist for the infantry and fill one of the vacant places. We are short of infantry, and the call for men is urgent and clear." A statement issued by the Defence Department shows that the shortage for the 14th Reinforcements stands now at 140 men. Auckland has exceeded her quota by 12 men, Wellington is 4 short. Canterbury is 4S short, and Otago Is SS short. Some misunderstanding has arisen from the claim made by Canterbury that the draft for the lvttli went forward in full strength. It appears that the Defence Department took into •account shortages in previous Canterbury drafts, and used some of the 14th .Reinforcement recruits to wipe off these shortages. The shortages are al! in the infantry, and the districts are being asked to make them up next week. Tf that is not done, the amount of the shortages will be added to the quotas for tile 15th Reinforcements, the Department having decided to make a really serious attempt to maintain the quota system. Last year Wellington often was called upon to make up the shortages of other districts, and in more recent months Auckland has been doing the same thing. But Auckland is now protesting emphatically, and Wellington is developing shortages of its own. The .ule now is that each district must bear its own responsibilities. The quotas, as most people know by this time, are based upon the number of men of military age in the military districts, as revealed by the National Register. RECRUITING BOARD'S SCHEME. "The question is simnlv this: Will the local authorities accede to the earnest, request, of the Recruiting Board and take up the work that has to be done," said the Minister for Defence (Hon. J. Allen) when his attention was drawn to some criticism of the recruiting system. "The work here in' Wellington, for example, is to divide the city into convenient areas under the control of sub-committees, arrange a systematic canvass in each area, ascertain just what men of military age are there, check and purge the rolls prepared by the Government from the National Register, and each man in order to find out, if possible, what his intentions are. Then we want the enlisted men, the medically unfit and the men engaged in protected industries marked off, so that we may have left a clear, accurate roll, which will show what men of military age are available and where they are. The committees are asked to enlist as many men as possible and produce, a roll of the rest, on the basis of the National Register roll. "The task is a big one and it involves lots of hard work. Some of the work will be unpleasant. But it has got to be done if New Zealand is to play her part in the winning of the war, and in my opinion it is work for men who cannot go to the front, not for the soldiers, ft is their share of the burden and sacrifice of war. It is their privilege. 1 am sure that most of the men who, on account of age or some other reason, cannot go to the front, feel, with me, that there is pleasure in working for the national cause at the present time. "I do not belittle the work that is done on the platform; but there is other work to be done, and I have indicated what it is. The Recruiting Board asks the local authorities and the citizens of non-military age generally to undertake that work. The position at the present time is that neither Wellington nor Auckland is doing the work. Christchurch is working on the required lines. The responsibility has been undertaken by the Citizens' Defence Corps, at the request of the Mayor, and the roll is being prepared in the way required. Dnnedin also is complying with the request of the Board."