West Coast Volunteers.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15218, 4 March 1915, Page 6

West Coast Volunteers.

It i« stated that about seven hundred young men from the, West Coast have volunteered for service at tho front, which is believed to be a larger, number in proportion to the population than any other district has yielded. Strange as it may seem, included among these volunteers are; a number of members of the Federation of Labour, who professed, such strong opposition to' the Defence Act. and some of them were passive resistors who had actually been fined for refusing to attend the drills. It is clear, therefore, that the.se men have no conscientious objection-to military service, and it is equally clear that they have their real share of courage and self-siierifico when the nineh comes. So far as these are con-' corned, we unreservedly confess that it was a mistake to call thorn'."sliirk",ers." as we fear w< , may have done in commenting generally on the "Red '.' Kfds.'Vand we desire publicly to testify our admiration of the gallant choice they are. making. Not a few of them hail from the Old Country, and we believe they have boon deeply stirred.by the loiters they have received from their relatives in tin* United Kingdom, who are closer to tho horrors of the war and are themselves going .to the front, knowing: that on the young men of the Empire now hangs the issue whether German barbarism is to have-u free course or receive its death-blow." Wo ur<\ now convinced that a good deal of the political opposition to the Dofomv Act on the West Coast was simply due to the" miners and others being led away by tho rabid language of- agitators of the Somplo type, without .stopping to think out the matter for themselves. Many of them were converted (to .sounder views after they had once been in camp. We have no doubt that nil of thos»\ who have now enrolled for the front feel that they would be far better qualified to carry out their groat wish bad they systematically gone in for training at - the outset. Frobablv they realise also that it is only byu fortunate combination of circumstances that Enuland has been allowed time to got her raw levies ready to take the field. Nevertheless, by their patriotic action in the time of stress they .have done honour to themselves, and have shed a lustre on West Coast patriotism which will not soon ho- forgotten.