FREE MEN'S LAST CALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 29, 3 February 1916, Page 8

FREE MEN'S LAST CALL.

THE DERBY RECRUITING CAMPAIGN. 2,700,000 ATTEST. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, December 17. Though the "Derby Recruiting Campaign " is said to have been a great success we are not permitted to know the •actual number of men " roped In " for the army and the navy under h's lordship's scheme. It is'stated that the number of men in the United Kingdom between the age of 18 and 40 eligible for service was at the last census about 8,100,000. Of these some three millions had already enlisted ere Lord Derby's scheme was evolved, and it is estimated that something like 1,7/50,000 are now engaged in making munitions or upon other indispensable work connected with warfare. This left some 3.350,000

" eligibles " for Lord Derby to round up under his scheme, which we were assured was to be the final test of our voluntary system of raising armies. With no official figures to guide us it is impossible to s-.iy with any claim to accuracy what proportion of that 3,350,000 has answered his lordship's very insistent call, but men who profess to be in a position to make guesses not too wide of the mark say that over 80 per cent have responded. If that is the case then the scheme Iws drawn into the service reservoir something like 2.7(10,001) men. How many of this number are really sound enough to be even trainable is a question that remains to be answered. A very large proportion indeed of the men attending the recruiting stations were merely " attested." for it was utterly impossible during the last week or ten (lays the scheme was in operation for the available medical men to even cursorily examine the mass of recruits. And, from personal knowledge of what happened even before the final and overwhelming rush, many of us fear that the so-called "medical examination was more or less a farce in a very large number of cases. We also know that many of our personal friends who have been attested are no more likely to be passed by any reasonably conscientious doctor as being physically lit to undergo military training than they are to rind themselves in the running for athletic honours. For example, a young man of my acquaintance who has been attending a hospital for treatment of nn internal disorder for live years past, and who has, moreover, been forbidden all athletic exexcises owing to some heart trouble has been "attested." Another man who has lost the sight of one eye entirely and can only " jee men ns trees walking" with the other unless he is wearing spectacles has also been caught in the Derhy net, togeuhor with his brother-in-law who—ns a result of a football mishap to his knee some years ago—dare not run even to catch a train. Not one of these three are in the least likely to pass muster when they are cajled i:p for the medical overhauling. It would indeed be a waste of money to put them into khaki for their physical "sins" would most surely " find them out" ore they had mastered the elements of drill. These are cases within my own personal knowledge, and they arc only illustrative of others known to mc. So —unless, happily, it has only been my bad luck to strike a * streak of ineligible " eligibles "— it would seem that that a very considerable percentage of the Derby recruits must be reckoned as merely •- cumbering the ground from a military point of view. Apart from these unfortunates the Derby net has enclosed thousands of men who simply cannot be spared for military service unless we arc prepared to face an entire stoppage in certain branches of industry hitherto deemed essential to the well-being of the country. We have no means of ascertaining at present what proportion of the " Derby " recruits will be available, but personally I shall be much surprised if, when the medically ineligible and the commercial and industrial " indispenv ables" have been weeded out, the

" Derby" reservoir gauge shows a two million men supply. Even so, the response has been gratifying, though to call enlisters under the Derby scheme '" volunteers" is to play with Truth. "Come, or you'll be fetched!" was -n fact I.ord Derby's call, and the shadow of Conscription's big baton drove a very large percentage of the men enrolled to the recruiting offices. That is a fact which no man who mixes freely with his fellow men will dispute.

One very noticeable outcome of the Derby scheme is the " volunteers'" change of view over the matter of "conscription " since he signed the attestation paper. Men who prior to visiting the recruiting office inveighed hotly against "conscription." and declared that the Government which attempted to force the " free-born Briton " into khaki would be riding for a certain fall, are now asking what steps the Government proposes to take to " rope in the slackers!" i.e., the percentage of "eligible:';" who have not seen fit to attest under the Derby scheme. It is really amusing to contrast the utterances of men who have been attested during the past week or so, with their outpourings in the days when they imagined that they were far removed from the ranks of those likely to be worried by the recruiting officer. They then held compulsion to be a thing unspeakable; to-day they are demanding that steps shall be taken to. compel every able-bodied man under 40 to place his. services at the disposal of King and Country, and the married " volunteers" arc particularly insisting that until every unencumbered person eligible for service has been compelled to don khaki no call ought to be made upon the married groups. Of one thing I am certain: It is that if a general election could bo held to-day on the question purely of National Service, and all khaki wearers actual and prospective could vote, the. pro-compulsionists would win hands down. It is stated that it is intended that under Lord Derby's scheme recruits shall be called up eight groups at a time. It. is not yet certain, but it is probable that the different sections of groups will be called up at intervals of two months in the following order: — , . .... „ Single Men Aged Ist- Bth Groups iro-nth-16th Groups ~„"— 17th-24th Groups .'..'" %£*o 2f.th.32nd Groups M """'"'«-J Men A ged 33rd-40th Groups '.*..' 27.34 ! 41st-4(itb Groups [ 35-40 i