The Dominion. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915. A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2484, 10 June 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915. A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

The magnificent enthusiasm with .vhich young New Zealand is responding to the call to arms is providing a problem of magnitude for the Defence Department. Already )ur own military district has men enrolled who, under present conditions, may not begin their training until the middle of December, ana with the prescribed four months at Trentham may not see the firing-line until nearly a year hence. Auckland City, if not the whole provincial district, has similarly a surplus of recruits, and lists of waiting volunteers are growing in length at recruiting offices through the country. The decision' to enlist with most of theso men has not been made in an instant. The casualty lists from the Dardanelles have told them plainly what is before them, and having taken the great resolve they are eager to be up and doing. Mr. Allen has spoken of the difficulties in tho way of getting all who wish and are fit to serve under arms at once. Everyone who has studied the subject at all realises that theso difficulties are formidable. At tho same time the disappointment of the country will be intense if volunteers eager for service are to wait indefinite months before even beginning their training. The effect of this' delay must be injurious generally. The men who have enlisted are unsettled, and thinking only of the day when they can get into camp, ind their employers are unable to make the necessary readjustments in their staffs until some uncertain date ahead. A man who had enlisted a fortnight ago on Monday last received a week's notice of dismissal from his employer, a small tradesman, who stated that the position was too unsettliug for his business. This is an extreme caso, and though this particular employer's attitude is to bo condemned as thoroughly selfish and unpatriotic, it is not to be denied that the military authorities are asking a very great deal of both tho men and their employers at tho present time. The three obstacles to a greatlyincreased effort by New Zealand are training, equipment, and transport. It is difficult to believe that they are insuperable, and we look forward to an announcement by Mr. Allen that he has found a solution of the problem. There may be a temporary shortage of munitions in Britain at the present moment, but there is no indication that the Empire does not need the services of every man it can place in the firing-line. In New Zealand the authorities are hampered by a lack of instructors, but this difficulty might conceivably be surmounted in either of the following ways : (1) The troops might be given a shorter period of training in the Dominion, and left to complete their course at the other end if instructors are available among the convalescent men there; or (2) it should not be difficult to provide men sufficiently competent to put recruits through a rudimentary course in a preliminary training camp, leaving them to be finally licked into shape at Trentham. By either, or both; of these means the handling of increased numbers of men should be facilitated. If equipment-. is short at the moment and blocks the path, it would be a stimulus to the workers and manufacturers at Home to know what even the most far away Dominions needed but their assistance to send forward j new forces to the Motherland's support. In any case, if there is an immediate shortage, help might surely be obtained from Australia. Only last week the Commonwealth Minister of Defence stated in Parliament that he would dispatch more infantry brigades if he could obtain o the men. Apparently, therefore, Australia has equipment, over and to spare above present requirements. Indeed, if all means fail of getting our own volunteers into camp locally it might he a question whether the Government could not fairly be asked to pay the cost of transport of men desiring to go to other parts of the Empire, where they can get into training immediately. In Sydney and Melbourne men are apparently being drafted into camp week by week. A local rcoruit, who is on the waiting list hero, in response to a cablegram, has -this week received advioe "from the Defence authorities in New South Wales stating that if he proceeds to Sydney and is there found to be medically fit he can go into camp immediately. If New Zealand' has volunteers and lacks equipment, and Australia has equipment and lacks volunteers, some basis of arrangement should be possible. As for transport, wc would appear not to have' reached the limits of our supply even locally when, despite the numbor of its steamers already in the transport service, the Union Company has been able to dispose of two vessels within the last_few weeks to firms operating

in the East. Tho company has also purchased two vessels of between four and five thousand tons for its Canadian trade. Two such ships

as tho Wahinc and tho Maori alono could carry a force of between 1500

and 2000 infantrymen to the Mediterranean, and the ferry traffic be-

tween the two Islands could surely, at a pinch, be served by older and less commodious boats as was done during odg chill season not so long back.

We make these specific suggestions because we feel that criticism in general terms at the present time is of little, service, it not undesirable. It is possible that, for reasons unknown to a layman, every idea wo have put forward is impracticable. On the other hand, it may be that some of these suggestions may prove helpful, and it is in that spirit that VA imi.kr (firm. The. Qos'eynmc.rit, if it is to translate JN'ew Zealand's

.troug and fervent desire for eer■ice into effective action, has an exicedingly difficult task be/ore it, uid carping criticism is the last ihing in tho public mind at the iresent time. It may even be, for ill we know positively to the cou;rary, that Lord Kitchener does not ilesire that \vc should send forward my men beyond our present rate of reinforcement. The public has the xn'tain knowledge, however, that New Zealand's recent offer of the ixlra force now in training at Ircntham was accepted, and that Australia's additional men were also welcomed. After all, it is the moral cffect of what we do that counts most. Much as an additional effort may mean to us its positive effeefc in itself must be infinitesimal in war on tho present scale. But not so with the moral effect. That indeed might easily have f&r-reaching and unforeseen results. Enthusiasm is infectious, and it would be something for New Zealand to stir her sister Dominions to still further efforts, and to make Britain and the world feel as they have never felt before that the lion's whelps are rallying round her to the limits of their strength and endurance. Victory, it seems, can only be gained by a supreme effort, and it is better that our effort should be made early than late. Moreover, as has been well said, the more sacrifices we are prepared to make, the less may be demanded of us in the end. Since the above article was in typo a statement has been made by His Excellency the Governor concerning the difficulties confronting New Zealand in sending forward more men. These difficulties are hinted at, rather than stated, by His Excellency, and the public will hope that they will not be of a lasting nature.