THE EMPIRE'S CALL.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15156, 21 December 1914, Page 8

THE EMPIRE'S CALL.

NEW ZEALAND'S EXCELLENT RESPONSE.

THE COMMANDANT ON RECRUITING.

Recruiting in New Zealand is proceeding quite satisfactorily, according to Colonel Robin, the Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces. In an interview-with a ''Dominion" representative on Friday, he made it quite clear that, although men were still wanted for service at the front, he wae extremely pleased with the way everything at this end had gone off so far. He said thr.t if anyone was under the impression that sufficient men for the Department's purposes had not offered their services, a -wrong impression •was abroad. The fact is that, so far, all the men required have been obtained without difficulty—and. in a sense, more men than are required. More yet are needed, of course, and no one need despair simply because there is. no dearth of men. Any volunteer -who sends along his name to the proper quarter will soon find that (if he is suitable) his prospects of seeing active service are just about as good as they could i>o. Recruiting here is done very methodically, and so quietly that the whole business might almost pass unobserved. Regarding the idea that there is a shortage of men, figures talk best. We know that on a certain date one of the New Zealand forces completed Its training, but the public will be surprised to know that immediately the trained force vacated the camp the next lot (in absolutely full strength) marched in. That lot is at present under canvas, and to-day the Defence Office could pnt its hands on half the lot which is to follow. The scheme is to have all the men in a camp start training at the same time. If they drifted in in twenties and thirties, and so on. the camp -would never progress past the goose-step. The names of volunteers are being received quietly all the -while, and at a certain time beforo they are required the men are notified to report on a given date. Then, from their various centres, the men are sent to Wellington, -where they commence training together, and they finish together. Colonel Robin mentioned thnt it had Deen suggested that New Zealand was not doing her share in the matter of providing soldiers. Comparison had been made with Great Britain, and it had been said that on a population basig we were doinrc far less • than the Old Country. The Officer Commanding paid that it is quite wrong.to say that New Zealand was not doing its share —because the fact is that we have done more than our shnre. The whole affair is run by the Imperial authorities. They stinulated New Zealand requirements. New Zealand has more than fulfilled them. Fipures cannot be published, but. it may be mentioned here that New Zealand comes out of the test splendidly, if tho population basis is applied in a general -way. A peculiarity of the recruiting in this country is that some districts provide, many more men than other districts do. This is not regarded as necessarily something detrimental to the districts -which have the smaller numbers representing them. The reason for tho discrepancy is that there are causes operatin.tr in those districts which act as a hindrance. In a little while the hindrance will pass away a-utomaticaltv, and the men from those districts will then feel free to send along their names. STATEMENT BY HON. J. ALLEN. In'a statement at Wellington on Friday tho Hon. James Allen, Minister of Defence, traversed the following remarks of Bishop Averill at Auckland: "England at last seems to be awakening to a sense of responsibility," said the Bishop, "but I doubt if New Zealand is. England is giving her best to this crusade, and if New Zealand gave in the same proportion as England is doing of her sons. New Zealand would have to give 50,000." Mr Allen said that the Bishop had stated the case very unfairly for New Zealand. The population of England was 45,000,000. England had been called upon by Lord Kitchener to provide 2.000,000 men, but it was not announced whether the 2,000.000 were all offering yet. Some of these mush of necessity b© retained for home defence. It was not to he expected that all the 2,000,000 would go to the front. New Zealand had already sent to the front 12,400 men, and had now under training for service abroad 2000 Europeans and 500 Maeris —14.900 in all. Every two months we should be sending away 2000 more, so that by the end of the year .from the date of the despatch of the first force we should have in training in the Territorial Force approximately 30,000 men, bringing our total quota "of trainod men under arms up to 53,000. Ho added that New Zealand would go on doing more than she had been yet asked to do. He pointed out, also,' that in computing New Zealand's quota he had taken no account of the Senior Cadets, of whom there were about 30,000.