The Dominion MONDAY, JULY 26, 1915. AUSTRALIA'S FORWARD MOVE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2523, 26 July 1915, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, JULY 26, 1915. AUSTRALIA'S FORWARD MOVE

An inspiriting rally to the Motherland's call for men and munitions is being made in Australia. Exactly fivo weeks ago to-day tho Commonwealth Minister of Defence announced that the British Government had cabled for as many men as possible, with or withoutequipment. It is not too much to say that in the intervening thirty-' five days the whole attitude of Australia towards the war has altered. A great recruiting movement has been inaugurated,' the State Parliament of Victoria-has adjourned to devote itself to the work, and the Commonwealth Parliament has passed a Bill to provide for the compiling of a National Register and the taking of an exhaustive ccnsjis shewing the wholo privately-owned wealth of the continent. The last census in Australia took fourteen months to compile, the present one—or that portion of it relating to personal servicc—is to be completed in eight weeks. When the Attorney-General, Mr. W.. M. Hughes, introduced the Bill on July 14, he remarked that there was then in the country only one ton of the particular paper - required for tho census cards. Nevertheless, the forty tons needed would be ready in a week, and as Parliament debated tho Bill the paper' was being manufactured. These facts are typical of tho way Australia is approaching her war problems. Simultaneously with the Parliamentary debates on the census .Commonwealth and State Committees of business men and engineers have been going into the possibilities of manufacturing shells, and lists have been'prepared of all the suitable machinery and so forth in readiness for an immediate start when the full specifications arc received. The extra spurt in the recruiting has already been so successful that instead of dispatching reinforcements of 10,600 men in October and November, tho number will be brought up' to 21,200 in reinforcements, with an infantry brigade of 4500 men in addition, making in all over 25,000 men for the two months. These additional offers followed on the remarkable success of the fortnight's special recruiting campaign in Victoria. New South Wales begins her campaign at the end of this week, and tho response is likely to be sufficient to keep the supply at the increased rate for some time ahead. This.means a heavy addition to the war expenditure, which the whole of the Commonwealth, it appears, is to finance itself. As Mr. Hughes said in introducing his Bill: "In this struggle there is to be no distinction. Every man who can has to give without stint. The man who has only his body, let him give that; the man who has wealth and body, let him give both." All this new effort will mean heavy burdens for those whose duty it is to remain, privation and peril for those who go. and many more sad and anxious hearts in Australian homes. Knt on all sides there is realisation that let victory cost what it may the price" must be paid in full. The spirit is one which should animate all British people at the present time. As a recent contributor to tho London Spectator finely put it : Onr dead feared this alone—to Rire too little. Then shall the living murmur at the price? The hands withdrawn, from ours to grasp the plough Would suffer only if the furrow faltered JIOW.