LEAD ON, NEW ZEALAND!

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15464, 17 December 1915, Page 12

LEAD ON, NEW ZEALAND!

TO THE EDITOR OF "rHE PRESS," Sir.—Tho .papers hare boon unpleasant reading lately. The Germans aro apparently ' winning, and recruiting is slack. As a would-be elderly married i lecruit, I havo been experiencing some i unpleasantness. I am being made tho recipient of unnecessary explanations | from other elderly married men. I . have also been requested to speak to soand so. "\ou can do it mm- you have enlisted." This wretched voluntary system is creating a whole lot of unpleasantness. National service should automatically come in on tho declaration of war. Each man and woman should either bo exempted or told off tv> suitable duties. Hang tho liberty of the subject and all other hampering liberties on a sour apple treo till the end of tho war. Far better and pleasant?r for us to do our own hanging voluntarily than that the enemy should take the matter in hand, as in the case in Belgium. Wo have only to ask ourselves this question: Would Germany have been able t»i put up such a fight if she had relied on a system such as ours? No? Weil, tho moral is, let us copy Germany, or, if you "would prefer it, oopy France. Let us copy nature, too. Man is a gregarious animal; he has the herding instinct,; out of this instinct, leadership __

i and organisation arise. In this respect ? to a certain extent the German ha« ' proved himself to be the superior » animal. ' Why should not New Zealand give ' the lead to the Empire in this greatest 1 of wars, as she has dono in minor mat- ; ters in the past, and go boldly for & national service.—Yours, etc., ! , PETER TROLOVE.