DOWN TO ZERO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 278, 22 November 1915, Page 7

DOWN TO ZERO.

AUCKLAND'S SLACK RECRUITING. DEFENCE OFFICE APPEAL. MEETS WITH NO RESPONSE. MINISTER TO CONFER WITH EMPLOYERS. For the first time since the outbreak of war there is occasion for concern in Auckland regarding recruiting. Last week only OS men were accepted for service in the city, and the total for the military district was under a hundred. On a population basis, we must from now until the end of the war find 150 men per week as our district quota. Last week's recruiting, therefore, fell 50 below the average. The present week has opened unsatisfactorily. In fact, since noon on Friday, onty 18 men have registered their names for medical examination. Eight of these have registered as infantrymen, six as mounted riflemen, and four for the Samoan relief force. As an officer put it this morning, " Recruiting is down to zero." In no other branches of the service but those mentioned are men wanted, and in no other branch may men enlist. On Friday an appeal was made to men already accepted for Bervice in arms, tther than infantry and mounted rifles, to transfer to those branches. The position is serious. In Auckland military district there are just over 1,000 men who have passed the medical examination, and are now on the waiting list. Of that number only 350 arc enrolled in the infantry and mounted rifles. Out of our quota of 407 men for the Tenth 'Reinforcements, which left for Trentham last week, only 12 were ambulance men and 12 Army Service Corps men. In those two branches we have over 300 men waiting. At the rate of 24 per month, it will bo just over a year hence before the last man is called up. It ! s astonishing to find that there has not, so far. been a single response to the appeal of the Defence authorities to these men—and to those registered in the Artillery, Signal Service, and other arms—to transfer to the two branches in which recruits are so urgently required. It js now intended to make it a matter of direct appeal, and each man enrolled will be circularised, and personally asked to "change over." The reason is a difficult to understand. Casualties amonjjst ambulance men and other branches have been just heavy as in the two main branches. Yet the position in Auckland in this respect, unsatisfactory though it be, is not nearly so bad as* in the South. There both Otago and North Canterbury failed to make up their quotas for the Tenths last week. Yet both have long lists of men waiting to be called up for service in the Ambulance and Army Service Corps. Southern newspapers make no bones about asserting that men are enlisting in these arms because they know there is no likelihood of being called up for many months to come. In the South, as in Auckland, recruiting has ceased in these branches. One other little problem is added to the worries of the Defence authorities just now. Since Friday over 30 ablebodied young men have called to ask for permits to travel overseas. Their right to do go has been challenged by the officer appointed by the Minister for Internal Affairs, under the new regulations, and they have been referred by him to the Defence Oflice. One and all have assured the Defence authorities that they are desirous of going Home to enlist, but a,s Major Duigan, staff officer, pointedly asks each one, "Why pro Home for the King's Rhillinjr when the pay offered here is five times as pood!" An inquiry into each man's bona fides follows. To-morrow, afternoon the Minister"for Defence, the Hon. James Allen, meets members of the Auckland Employers' Association at the Grand Hotel, to discuss the recruiting problem.