THE SEARCH FOR MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1917, Page 7

THE SEARCH FOR MEN.

MORE SOLDIERS OR DEFEAT. ALLIES' SUPREME NEED. (Sydney Sun Correspondent). London, Feb. 19. Despite all the efforts of the Empire, we are entering upon the decisive campaigns of the war with not mnay more than two million men in our oversea armies. Sir Douglas Haig's men in France and Flanders do not touch the two million, and the Army Corps in Macedonia, Eqst Africa, Mesopotamia, | an( l Egypt can be put down at very few j hundred thousand. Have we enough? The \var Office has told the Government we have not. It hopes for the best. It looks for a -heavy defeat of Hindenburg on the West front during the spring. But it does not share sir Douglas Haig's optimism about "breaking the German line completely and at many points"— it rather thinks, to be quite candid, what the statesmen and naval leaders also think, that there can foe no break through until the year is far Advanced, and a section of the German lino has been hammered far back into a deep bend. It will admit that it is not confident that "the Vvest front can under any circumstances be broken this year.™ That is the great issue which remains undecided, whic(l will affect the course of peace negotiations in winter more than any other factor, and which at present hangs over all fate and all destiny. Little comfort can now be gained for those who have not done their utmoßt during the war, or those who have lagged back until now it is almost too late. The die is about to be cast. For good or evil, the fato of the world is about to be decided. And th« greatest Empire the world has ever seen goes into its Armageddon undoubtedly short of men.

ONE MORE GREAT EFFORT. The wonderful sturdiness and courage of our warriors may carry us through. But if the impossible proves to be impossible, there will be at least one more great effort made. And it is for this that the War Office to-day in this country is seeking here, there and everywhere for more men. It knows how critical is the situation, but it is tongue-tied, and, moreover, Its hand is so heavy that it blunders and offends. So the last four weeks of recruiting have been weeks of constant quarrel,' of misunderstandings and 'bickering. The War Office steps into agriculture and demands the exempted farm servants. At once the Department of Agriculture sets in motion all its official means of delay and obstruction, the farmers meet throughout the provinces in protest, and tho anti-conscription Ist newspapers ficrpeiy assail the recruiting officers, The farmers win. Next the War Office turns to the collieries, but is beaten back by the friends of France and Italy, which are verging upon political crisis because of lack of coal. It urges the application of compulsion to all war labor, so that men may be taken from non-essential industries and sent to replace younger fighting males in munition factories and shipyards. Here it is met with obstinate refusal from politicians frightened to offend the trades unions, although these unions havo with true patriotism sacrificed everything demanded for their country's salvation. The unions havo given away their old conditions of working, their rooted objection to conscription, their limitations upon unskilled labor, and many hard-won privileges; they would give away also—although reluctantly—their right to choose their work. It would mean another million men for the armies in France, but those who should take this great ste», perhaps the final victory-winning' stc'o! :stand palsied and afraid.

MEN OP FIFTY TO FIGHT. ' In gathering its armies, the military machine is opposed by countless subtle forces. There has been little corruption here in the recruiting scheme, which lets no man escape because- of influence. But the country has never seriously tackled the campaign in France as being worthy of every possible effort.' It has drifted in its recruiting, just as it drifted through the Dardanelles campaign and ii)to the Mesopotamia!! tangle. When it adopted conscription, it was with-the proyjso that industry and trade was not to- be disturbed more than necessary. A man owning and driving a taxi-cab, for instance, was judged to be worthy' of exemption beeause his business depended upon his exertion's. Buauiesshouses everywhere secured exemptions for'sections of their staffs. Banks especially remained well stocked with young clerks. Government departments were sacrosanct. Whitehall flourished 'into great blocks of liew buildings, all containing young men engaged oh work "of national importance." The railways were not touched. Motor-'bus drivers, type-setters, printers, and a host of "certified" occupations were put out of reach. Under Mr. llunciman's energetic rule at, the Board of Trade, conscription was so emasculated that it was almost inoperative. The Board of Trade ana) the Treasury argued that Great Britain had to maintain its foreign trade, that it bad to produce in order to keep up its role as Allies' financier, and that it must ,come out of the war with a strong grip on all those markets which Germany had lost. The Little Englanders admired ttw conscientious objectors; . they insisted that every man called up for military .service should have the right to. appeal to many courts; they did not try to visualise what complete overthrow of the Prussian doctrines would mean to the world; they fought, the war, thinking that it was a temporary madness, and that some day all would be the same again, with Germany leading us once more in trade and philosophy.

LEADERS NEVER SATISFIED. All this has gradually disappeared, and still we have only a few more than two million men fighting in our armies abroad. Of these, twelve divisions are' from the Dominions. To say that the military leaders have ever been satisfied would he a calumny upon a body of men who, whatever their ignorance and lack of genius, have fought hard both against tlio elements of inefficiency at home and the armies of the enemy abroad. From Kitchener to Sir William Robertson, they, have ceaselessly demanded more men, and fearlessly pointed out the pOßtlinoss and danger of insufficient forces. To-day the War Office has gone so far as to' demand the enorlinent Without delay of all fit men up to and including the. age of 50. This sudden jump of ten years in the military age would bring under martial law several millions of infen » : ho are more than half-way through/their Tit's, [who have homes and families, who hava, since the younger men were called, up/ ! .bcon carrying on the principal trades ans I industries. But the War Office is tired of half measures? And it is determined that its aost'l "the armies for the great effort s§slo autujaja

.—almost certainly the last big military; effort needed—is to increase the military* age, and then, when practically every able-bodied man in the country* can ,bc brought under martial law, to compel that reorganisation of labor that will. ieplo.ee young men in the war factories with older men, so that the required million men of serviceable fighting age can be secured for Haig. It is not intended that the men over forty will bo sent to the. firing line. They will be employed on work behind the -lino, releasing men fit to be soldiers. For the military leaders never forget that modern warl. fare is "essentially a youngman'sigame,''