MAM-POWER EFFORT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 87, 12 April 1918, Page 2

MAM-POWER EFFORT.

NEW ZEALAND MUST DO MORE. IMPORTANT MTNISTERIAX STATEMENT. NEW TANK BATTALION. HOUSE AND THE SHIRKER COMBING OPT DEMANDED. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday, j The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence made important statements to the House this afternoon regarding the military position and New Zealand's future effort. MeiriDers showed the live-1 liest interest, and by their comment indi-' cated that the House considers the Defence Department will have to consider-! ably stiffen up ita search for defaulters, while the Public Service should be thor- j oughly combed out. The Prime Minister, ! in making a statement relative to the I appeal received from Mr. Lloyd George and the accelerating of Xew Zealand's reinforcements to the front, said that he ihad referred at the conference of rucm- I bers the previous day to the action already taken in response to Mr. Lloyd. George's appeal, including the earlier departure of two reinforcements now in camp —in one case one week earlier, and in the other case three weeks. Fortunately ships were available to take away these reinforcements. Puttin:: forward of the departure of these men meant that ■the first members of the Second Division would be mobilised sooner than was anticipated. Speaking of the British Premier's message, which had been published in the newspapers, Mr. Massev said that a supplementary message was received by the Government, and it was on that message that action had been taken. NEW ZEALAND TANK BATTALION. One of the requests made by the British Government was for a tank battalion, to ■which an affirmative reply was dispatched. This tank battalion was in-

tended to consist of seven hundred men, | including officers and the men required for it, and would be taken from the reserves in England. This meant that in addition to the ordinary reinforcements a monthly reinforcement of fifty "men would be required for the tank battalion. He went on to say that he had cabled to | Mr. Lloyd George that the people and Government of New Zealand were prepared to increase the monthly reinforce- j ments to whatever point tbe Imperial authorities considered necessary, and he j was awaiting a reply stating the Imperial requirements. SECOND DIVISION.. The position regarding the Second Division men was that the draft for the Forty-second' Reinforcement' would; '-go into camp between "list and 25th "of May, and would be partly composed of Second Division men. "I am practically certain," added the Premier, "that we shall have to increase the number of men in each reinforcement in future, but I cannot state yet what that increase will be, as I have not yet received a reply from the Home Oioverninent." Referring to the same subject later in the afternoon, Mr. Massey stated that if the Imperial Government did not advise the New Zealand Govern-1 ment of tbe number of men they required j the New Zealand Government would act i on its own responsibility and send the i number of men they thought should be pent, based on the probab'.e duration of the war. The question of the war's probable duration was the chief difficulty in fixing the increase. FATE OF EMPIRE IX BALANCE. *• I am not unduly pessimistic, but'! don't think anyone can read the speech by Mr. Lloyd George yesterday without com'ng to the conclusion that it was in Mr. Lloyd George's mind that the fate of the Empire may be trembling in the balance," declared tbe Premier. Personally, he continued lie had no doubt about it. and it behoved us to do everything possible to meet the crisis. Mr. Lloyd George had declared that we had entered the most critical stage of the war. There was no sacrifice which we should not be ready to make. It had been suggested that New Zealand should give more attention to production than man power. He knew hovv important production was, for this bad been under his special care, aud he knew we could not do without production. But lie would say that in the crisis which had arisen man power was undoubtedly the first consideration. Cabinet would have to consider the position, but as soon

as definite information came to hand, i Cabinet on behalf of Parliament and people, would do the right tiling COMBING-Ol'T REQUIRED. '' I believe we will have to commence ! a more complete combing-out of men of military age," continued Mr. Massey. j *' 1 cannot help thinking that there are I still in New Zealand a .very large.-nu.nl- I ber of single men of military age. physically lit. who have, not yet been called up." Mr. \\". 11. Field: There are thousands of them: Mr. Massey: I'm not expressing any j opinion in regard to numbers. It nitty . be necessary, though I don't express the definite opinion, that we should followBritain's example of increasing the military ago. This shows how grave is the t crisis, and 1 am pretty certain we have to face the shutting flown of non-essen- I tial industries in order that men em- ] ployed, not of military age or fit. can ! be transferred to those industries which I are essential. Mr. Nosworthy: Stop race meetings. Mr. Hornsby: One of the things they Ought to do. Mr. Massey: "There are a great number of things which will have to be done which are not being done at present for T am strongly of opinion that we must do our duty, putting in every ounce of effort we can bring to bear." He went on to say that he was only able to speak in general terms of the Government's proposals, but the Government was prepared to go the whole length to do its duty, and would ask Parliament and the people to make any sacrifices required so that New Zealand could assist in bringing the war to an issue we all desired. CLASS B MEN THIS MONTH. The Minister of Defence informed the House that it had been found necessary to take a ballot of Class B of the Second Division this month, instead of June, as previously announced, in order to keep the promise given of three clear months' notice between the date of medical examination and the date of mobilisation. I'kLi ballot, stated Sir James Allen,

would be held on April 23, and would t contain not less than 5,000 names, including the First Division men. He declared that every effort was being; made to discover the First Division men who were still on the books of the Defence Department as defaulters and deserters. Altogether 9,5310 men were deemed to be deserters or defaulters, but of this number, 6,666 had been satisfactorily accounted for, leaving 2.564 still to be accounted for as dead or out of the Dominion. A3 to the appeals of the First Division reservists, every case adjudged had been reviewed, and of 6,967 reservists whose calling up had been adjourned sine die, some 840 had been combed out, leaving 6,127 still on the adjourned list. It was for Parliament to say how much further they were to be combed out. LIVELY QUESTIONING. '■ What about combing out your own Department?" asked Mr. Fletcher. Sir James Allen.- The Defence Depart- . ment has been completely combed out. | Members expressed dissent, and Sir ! James Allen retorted that he would give all the facts and figures to-morrow. 1 Mr. Peareo informed the Minister ! that it had been publicly suggested that the police had not taken proper action to round up defaulters. These men had ' been seen on racecourses and other t places. j The Hon. T. Wilford, Minister of ; 'Police, replied that his Department had no power to arrest except by warrant, which could only bo obtained from the! I Defence Department. A suspected man j ~ could be examined, but not arrested. j •| Members: Then lie clears out! j .' Air. Wilford: This has taken place' : recently in the Taranaki district, where 1 two names were furnished. Warrants I 1 were immediately issued, and the men '■ arrested. Mr. Forbes: What about combing out ; the police? Mr. Anderson suggested that the fail- '; ures were due to a lack of co-ordination ' between the Defence and the Police, but in his district the police were doing everything possible, though they failed to . arrest one man through a ridiculous [ I technicality which should be done away ' with. (Hear, hear.) There wan a feelSing of utter no-confidence over the pro- " 1 cpiiure, and tho people had got it into j t 1 their heads that there was a league be- j M tween the Military Service Board and ,; certain classes of the community. He ' j knew this was wrong, but the impression was there. I Tlte Minister of Defence expressed deI light, at the active spirit shown by the 1' House. He wanted all members to look > up the defaulters' lists, and give the - j Department information. j Mr. Lee: What happens when we give '

it? Sir James Allen: We deal with the v .-..itter. , Mr. Lee: You don't. Mr. Witty: Thirty were at Ohakune ' the other day. and you let them go. Sir .lames Allen assured the House j that the Police and Defence Depart- j 1 ! ments were working together well. A| . : great many of those undiscovered were j | dead; others were sailors. He read a ( memorandum sent to the Minister of j Police in February, regarding the detection of defaulters. It warned the police that enrolment certificates were insuffi- , cient to prove bona fides of First Divi- | 6ion or Class A Second Division men, as. ■ they should have leave passes from camp or a" certificate of medical- cxerrrpfcron.- < i Mr/JWilfprd said far »?nttre«Hi4 beers ' done by the police in the matter of • arrests thau was known, but he suggested that when a man was gazetted las a deserter his name should be auto- ,! matically published in the Police Gazette . I and that this should be sufficient autho- [ I rity for the police to arrest the man. .\ (Hear, hear.) Referring to the Police - Department itself, the Minister stated - that the police force was undermanned. | ~ In reply to Mr. Isitt, Sir James Allen i declared that as far as he knew, re-1 -; turned officers were used by the Defence ! . j Department for every opportunity that j . offered. j f Mr. Wilkinson brought before the Mm- i ■ ister's notice the fact that a number of i deserters were camped in the Egmont reserve, yet, although information was given, the military and police authorities ' were so slow that the men escaped. j Mr.. Witty wanted to know why the. Red Caps were not sent on active service. Sir .las. Allen: Red Caps, are all unfit; for active service. ! Mr- Witty asked why they did not comb j men out of the hospital ships, and why ' Iso many moneyed men obtained exemp- j ' ition. | " 1 Sir Jas. Allen replied that men on hosJ I pittil ships were doing active service at the front. As to rich men, he had no ' knowledge of any rich man who had es- : i caped the supervision of the Military Serivice Boards. Those Boards made no disj tinction between rich and poor. j J l .Members: What about Laidlaw? ! '\ M.r. Dickson: And Tole? ] J j Dr. Thacker: What about Borthwick, * j in f'liristcliurcli? | ■ Sir Jas. Allen: Tole's case is now being -examined into. Laidlaw has lost two 5 brothers at the front, and is the sole re- - | maiding brother. ;

I Mr. Young: Not at the time of exempton. Mr. Dickson: Tole's case is worse. Mr. Young: Yes: a disgraceful case. Sir Jas. Allen repeated that all ! cases were examined and inquired ; into. In answer to another in- ; quiiy lie repudiated the suggestion that I the officers kept in New Zealand were not I doing splendid work. They were doing I invaluable work for the country. | Dr. Newman suggested that plainclothes detectives should be employed to j seek out deserters. Sir Jas. Allen: Will the hon. gentleman j become one ? ( Laughter.) • I Dr. Newman: That is very unfair. The "Minister does not possess all the wisdom of this House. I am sure the use of plainclothes detectives would result in getting a lot of men in the backbloclcs. I Sir .las. Allen: It has been done. | Dr. Newman; Only to the smallest possible extent; simply a farce. 1 The lion. G. \V. Russell assured the ' House that so far as the Government was concerned practically every fit single man in the Government Service had been combed out, and other Ministers supported the statement. The Premier stated that only 200 First Division men remained in the railway [service. Out of that number 100 were ;ki'pt back owing to resumption of the j suburban services.