APPEAL FOR RECRUITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1939, Page 5

APPEAL FOR RECRUITS

MR JORDAN’S ACTIVE PART

REPLY TO CRITICISM. PUBLIC ADDRESSES ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. Strong exception is taken by the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, to a letter which appeared in the “Times-Age” yesterday which alleged there was a lack of leadership in Masterton in furtherance of the recruiting campaign. Mr Jordan pointed out that on at least four occasions he had made appeals to the youth of the district and country to join up with the Territorial forces and had also appealed to employers to give employees every facility to join.

On Saturday, February 18, at the Masterton Park, Mr Jordan spoke for ten minutes urging young men to take some part in training and asking for the assistance of employers. He repeated this on February 20 at a public meeting held in the Social Hall, to which residents were invited, with others, to see a film dealing with modern training methods. “On each occasion,” observed Mr Jordan this morning, “what I said was fully reported in the “Times-Age” and I understand from the local area officer that in the following fortnight he received 31 new recruits.” Mr Jordan went on to state that on Anzac Day he spoke in Wellington at the Dawn Parade service, which was broadcast and rebroadcast in the afternoon and published verbatim in the Masterton paper. Again, at the Masterton Rotary Club luncheon on the Thursday following Anzac Day, his address was on similar lines and his remarks were once more quite fully reported in the “Times-A-ge.” His address on February 20 had appeared also in the Wellington papers. Mr Jordan points out that at the film screening mentioned above, speaking as president of the Masterton branch of the New Zealand Defence League, he referred to the fact that out of a’ quota of 42 men from the Wairarapa Bush districts only 17 went into camp. That, to his mind, was deplorable. According to the report appearing in the “Times-Age” of February 21, Mr Jordan went on to state on that occasion: “There was something radically wrong with the system of education in this country when they could get only 17 men to go into training for a week. Mr Jordan said he thought we could learn something from those countries that we were inclined to revile. Men who had been Home had told him of the intensity of the desire to serve the country that was manifest in the young in some of these Continental countries. He believed that there was a real spiritual value in the willingness of the young men to serve their country, and if our system of Government was to survive and flourish and if liberty which was its life-blood was to remain pure and strong, then this desire to serve one’s country, in either a social, public or industrial way, would have to be regarded not as a mere eccentricity but as a normal habit of mind. Mr Jordan appealed to all to encourage youth in this country to do their duty. The State had a right to expect a return for what it had spent on them, and to get some return for' its investment. Mr Jordan exhorted all citizens to do something to assist Territorial training! He made a special appeal to employers to assist by allowing their employees time off for training. ‘Tell them you expect them to go,’ said Mr Jordan, ‘and at the same time say they will not lose anything by it. The extra small amount needed to make up their wages can be regarded as a small increase in insurance premiums, and a very good investment too.’ ” Mr Jordan said that evidently the correspondent was a new arrival in the town or did not take any part in its affairs or read the papers. The local Area Officer in Masterton, Sergeant-Major C. E. Rogers, stated this morning ..that Mi’ Jordan had given every assistance towards recruiting in Masterton and was actually responsible for starting recruiting here. Moreover, he had kept in almost daily touch with the Defence Authorities regarding the matter.