Ashburton Guardian Manga est Vesitas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1915. MORE MEN MOVEMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8201, 26 July 1915, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Manga est Vesitas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1915. MORE MEN MOVEMENT.

The Defence Minister should by this time.f>be impressed 'with the unanimity of public opinion on the question of increasing New Zealand's quota-of troops for war service. Three, months ago an agitation was commenced in Auckland with the object of inducing the Government to increase the .'total" to 50,000 men, and though the proposal met with instant support from the Press and the public all. over the Dominion, Mr Allen declined to entertain the idea, chiefly on the! ground that it would be impos-i sible to equip so large an addition j to our forces. Since then, the War Office has communicated with the Commonwealth Defence authorities, asking that as many men as possible be sent, "withj or without equipment." Whenj Mr Allen, was questioned on'this j matter, he stated that he pre- J ferred to despatch our troops fully j equipped, a decision worthy enough in itself, but somewhat Quixotic in view of. the circumstances. The Wellington Patriotic Society is to interview the Defence Minister to-day, and we will no doubt ascertain whether there are .any valid reasons against a further increase of troops. The society intends to suggest that the Government should at once introduce legislation to provide for national registration, and it is believed that this . 'proposal will meet with Ministerial approval;,; as it certainly ■will be endorsed by the general public. Its seems most probable that the war will extend over another winter. In fact, some of the most experienced writers on military subjects agree' that Great Britain and her Allies will not be fully prepared for a sustained aggressive campaign till the end of the present year. And if .Germany is prepared to contest every inch of ground between her present trenches in France and Belgium and her capital, then it is quite conceivable that Lord Kitchener's estimate of three years will be exceeded. Danzig, Konigsberg, Posen, Spandau, Magdeburg, Mainz, Ulm, Metz, Cologne, Coblentz, Strassburg, and Kiel will all have to be subdued in turn, and many thousands of lives will have to be sacrificed before this gigantic task is achieved.- It

will be done if it is necessary to do it. Only the; Germans doubt its possibility. It is therefore reasonably certain that for many months to come the British forces on the Continent and at the pardane*lles will need to be constantly augmented. New Zealand and Australia have done well, but they have not done "all that is possible for them to do. In this Dominion there are thousands of eligible men who, apparently, will respond to nothing less than compulsory registration—which is but one remove from conscription. The Wellington; Patriotic Society contends that the, National Reserve is not being 1 T suffit ciently utilised!in New Zealand^ but the time for: its use will come when, as is said to be the case with Germany at the present time, all the human material from other classes in the community has been drafted into the reinforcements. Germany had to call up the Landsturm early in May because of the probability of Italy's intervention, and, writing on May 20, .Mr Hilaire- Belloe stressed that fact,. " "It is the very characteristic of the present situation, . it is the.' yery root of the German confidence and of the fury of the Austro-German attack in "the East," he wrote, "that the enemy is putting into the fighting, line at this : moment every atom of fighting power he has at his command."