CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15460, 13 December 1915, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

CONSCRIPTION VERSUS GERMAN" DOMINATION. TO THE EDITOR Of "THE TRESS." Sir, —Are we. as a nation, prepared to leave tho Gorman domination to cliancc, and prepared to risk it. or are we by conscription determined to placc our Empire, which, our forefathers hare won for us, in such a position that this Empire shall remain our possession for all time, and render the outcome of this ivar an absolute certainty? This is tho only important question. Any side issues with regard to conscription not being constitutional are irrelevant. "What constitution would be our lot under German dominance? Absolutely none. If von read tho war news, tho Austro-Germans still hold their own on the "Western front, and on the Eastern have won victories and have annexed provinces , and hitherto have been victorious in Serbia, and what is the invariable answer? "Wo have continued to follow the ancient policy of sending driblets to strategical points, to be slaughtered, and what is the invariable answer ? Sufficient forces wero not available, and why ? Because our politicians are too tijnid to look facts in tho face and enforce conscription, probably somo of them thinking more of votes than of their Empire. "Wo sent a driblet of somo ISO.CCO to France. I believe uO.CQO or so fought at Mons. to be slaughtered, although they fought magnificently, and wero probably the Ironsides of that retreat on Paris, and why? Because moro men were not available, owing to there being no conscription in force. AV'e sent .another driblet of 8000 marines to Antwerp, with the result that two or three thousand wero interned. Another failure because other forces were not available. We sent another 100.000 or so to Gallipoli Peninsula to fight a lore© of over half a million. This is the antithesis of strategy. Tho answer is that they were the only forces available. Conscription was not in force.

I And now I oonio to probabJy on© of tho most strategical theatres of the war. Serbia is on the flank of Austria, and 1 think that I am right in saying that Austria is not so strongly fortified on that flank, and probably we missed one of the proa tost strategical moves of tho war. Germany advertised months ii: advance that she was going to organise an expedition to conquer Serbia and open a road to Constantinople; no doubt but that she was in need of recruits, and intended, with her own officers, to commandeer the whole Turkish nation, and if she succeeds it "will probably prolong the war another year, s o that we liad adecmato warning, but we liare to leave Serbia to lie devastated as Belgium had been, because sufficient troops were not, available. It may bo alleged that the equipment was not sufficient, but I maintain that equipment would have followed conscription. if our timid politicians had grappled with it at the outset, and not have delayed it and put it off. and then we should have been enabled to have, taken advantage of our strategical opportunities, and .even now it is not too late to prepare for tho future operations. Even if equipment falls s-hort of requirements, and it will, we could still drill tho recruits in trench work, with picks and shovels, and could substitute staves for bayonets for bayonet exercise, and instead of half-

baked recruits, these men would be already trained, when, equipments were completed.

Why should we proton? this war, when by instituting conscription the period would be considerably curtailed? Modern strategy lays down a rigid rule that given a superior numerical forco with adequate artillery and machine support delivered at any defined strategical point is the only means of insuring a complete victory. We have won victories with driblet*; in the days of the brown Bess musket, and apparently hitherto we have not deviated from our ancient traditions, but in these days of the high excellence of modern artillery and machine-guns and their devastating results driblet* are only food for bullets. It is time' that we reeogniso that this will never win a large war. Now look at the other side of the picture. If conscription had been enforced early we probably would have been enabled to have sent half a million men to Serbia. This in every probability would have brought in Roumania and Greece, and with the French and Russian contingents would have totalled as many men as the Austro-Gor-mans have on the Eastern frontier. We are under the blissful delusion that wo are winning, when the reverse is the case; as a matter of fact we have only won on tho high seas, and most of our failures on land liavotbe origin in driblets. As this is my debut in newspaper correspondence. I hope that kind readers will make any allowances tor any errors of self assertion and attribute the fault to over zeal. —Yours, etc., F. B. DENNI&. Ex-Povcrtv Bay Cav.