AN UNFAIR COMPARISON
"WAIT TIEL HIE END OF THE WAR." lit yesterday's papers appeared a cable message purporting to give the substance of a statement by Mr. Bonar Law. about the Dominion's efforts in supplying men. He said that Canada had promised to mobilise half a million troops. Australia, it was estimated, would have three hundred thousand by June next, while New Zealand, it was estimated, would have about thirty-six thousand troops, with regular reinforcements. This statement was referred to tflie Defence Minister (the Hon. J. Allen) yesterday for his _ opinion upon it. 'Tse comparison is ludicrous, and the figures misleading and inaccurate," said Mr. Allen. ''I don't know how many men Canada has sent or intends to send. The cablegram says she is going to mobilise 500,000 men, but it does not say when bfie■ will mobilise them,' or whother any of them are being kept for home defence. Ido know that Australia has not sent 300,000 men- yet, and the figures for Australia aro problematical. Australia, may have sent/ 300,000 by June next, but she may not. Tho figures for New Zealand are misleading. We have already sent to the front nearly 35,000 men, and by June next should have sent about 50,000 men. And wo shall then have another 10,000 men mobilised for training. This is not a statement of what we may do. This is what.we will do. Those other figures quoted aro only estimates, all problematical.
, "However, I don't want to make com. parisons now between New Zealand and Australia, and New Zealand and Canada. lam quite content to wait until the end of the war. I know very well how New' Zealand-will come out of a comparison then." The fact seems to be, although Mr. Allen did not press it, that the figures for Canada are the commitments for the estimated duration of the war/ Tho Australian figures 110 doubt include the new army of 50,000 which Australia'is trying to raise. The statement! also assumes that Australia will get over all her difficulties of training large bodies of troops, and of transporting them to the war zone,
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19160113.2.40
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2668, 13 January 1916, Page 7
Word Count
353AN UNFAIR COMPARISON Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2668, 13 January 1916, Page 7
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in