WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE AGE OF SERVICE. NINETEEN YEAS OLD LADS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Ai.gr. 13. If the Government has been seriou.ljr ♦oateinylating lowering the age limit for aiilitary service to nineteen, it eartalniy k*i been doing so without swot ides erf conciliating the members of the Second Division. It may be in the romd* gf ifche Minister of Defence and his colleagues that it would be wise en wi>nI omfc grounds to postpone calling up married men for another year, even at s>e cost of sending youths of under twenty into the firing line, /but- U'ey have received no encouragement toww-ds this conclusion from any eonsideranle of the reservists immediately concerned. Judging from what is happening here and from reports coming in from other parts of the cpuntry, the members of the Second Division, speak-1 i.ing generally, are as adverse to their responsibilities beiug cast upon "the l>oy»j 'iu our playgrounds," as one of t' em.ha* i "put it, as they are anxio.ua to see proper I provision made for the dependents they may leave behind,

THE SECOND DIVISION'. The question of pensions and allowances Is' the one thing really concerning the married men 'who honestly recognise their duty in the present crisk 'llie suggestion that tho age limit should be lowered has not come from them or from .any of their organisations. But this i very question is the ono occasioning the 1 Government roost perplexity. Tht. Prime 'Minister, the Minister of Finance, and' the iUuiiter of Defence all have admitted ili« soundness of the claim of th» members of the Second Division to special and generous consideration, Put it is obvious that if tho war went on for another couple of years, a dread contingency which must be taken into ad- : count, the payment of the pensions and 'allowances proposed by Hheir representaUiVQS wwld involve th« eountjfy ia an <W,«ia»oiw wyanditur#. It i» thjg ptcs-jw-t that is angftjpsg the of : |Ui» Goverwnwis just now, uot the expedient of Uking boys from school -to l*av# the gkins of the married men.