The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1916. RECRUITING PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2724, 20 March 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1916. RECRUITING PROBLEMS

-The informative report laid before the meeting of the Wellington Recruiting Committee on Friday afternoon by Captain Barclay serves a useful purpose in giving prominence to a number of removable defects which still mar the efficiency of our recruiting system, and to features of the conditions surrounding recruiting which call for lcform. The opinion evidentlyis widely held that a really determined effort should bo made to meet the war responsibilities of the Dominion before resort to compulsion. So general is this feeling that the present recruiting campaign—regarded by common consent as the final trial of the voluntary system—is being actively supported and. promoted by many who believe that compulsory service would be not_ only more efficient but more equitable than the system in vogue. In order that'a fair and searching test maybe applied to the voluntary system it is, of course, necessary that every effort should be made to remove obstacles to its smooth and efficient working. That something remains to be done in this direction is not to be denied. Undisputed facts were raised aj; the iccent meeting of the Recruiting Committee which can be taken to n can nothing else than that the present recruiting methods are in somo details visibly inefficient and incapable of securing tho best results. Passing over for the moment the question of the treatment of married men and others with dependants, Captain Barclay laid his finger upon a serious weakness in the prevailing meth- : ods of recruiting when ho pointed out that no .hold is kept upon men who pass the medical test and register, during the interval that elapses before they are called up to go into camp. This may fairly be called a glaring defect, and it has become more apparent as, with tho passago of time and the increasing dram upon the country's man : powcr, the difficulty of raising tho numbers required for succeeding reinforcement drafts has increased. The matter has gone so far that, except in a few favoured areas, it is now taken for granted that the number of men responding to each call will be short, sometimes materially short, of the number available on paper. This is positively _ farcical. A recruiting system is intended to pass men into the Army, and when instead it passes back into civil life a certain number who have declared their willingness to serve and been pjoyed fit it can, to this extent, be called nothing else than farcical. That as a general rule men who register and subsequently default have little to be proud of is not to the point. _ The essential thing is that there is no earthly reason why- they should be allowed to play fast and loose in this fashion. The solution of the problem should be easy, though the exact method of solving it is a matter for the decision of those who have been giving the subject attention. . Captain Barclay suggests that men should bo sworn in and paid the camp rate of pay in tho interval between registration and going into camp, _ and there is the alternative proposition of receiving camps. By one method or the other- the present unnecessary leakage of recruits could be stopped, and it maybe pointed out that objections which have been raised by the Defence Minister to the immediate acceptance of . recruits—objections based to some extent on the factor of expense—have lost force now that the business of obtaining recruits is assuming more of a hand-to-mouth character than in the early days of the war. Possibly the problem would be best solved by a combination of the methods mentioned. A system obtains, we believe, in Australia under which men arc given a certain amount of preliminary training in tho vicinity of their own homes, prior to going into the regular training camps. A similar plan might be adopted as regards the cities and larger provincial and country towns in the _ Dominion,

while receiving camps might be provided for recruits from rural areas. It can _ hardly be contended that it is impossible to find instructors to give useful, preliminary training to recruits while it is found possible to continue the training of the Territorials and Senior Cadets

Some other questions which were raised at the' meeting of the Recruiting Committee call less for lay comment than for definite action by the Government. This appHoc particularly to what was said about the

medical test. Problems which concern the general efficiency of the recruiting system command first attention, because for the time being the call to arms is ad Iresfcd primarily to able-bodied men without dependants. Some of the most important problems touched upon at Friday's meeting relate, however, to the position of married men who enlist, as not a few hav-j done. Tho agitation for pensions by right is now so strong that the Government will presumably feel bound to meet it by legislation. Bare justice clearly demands that tho dependants of a soldier killed in action should bo granted a pension irrespective of private means, up to some such reasonable maximum as the amount exempted from income tax. A more complex and difficult question was raised by Mr. 11. A. Wright. M.P., and other speakers who dealt with the subject of soldiers' pay. It was contended by these speakers ,that the Government should supplement tho military and civil pay, as some local enlist by paying them half salary or making up the difference between militar yancl civil pay, as some local bodies and private commercial institutions arc doing. At an immediate view this proposal has much to commend it, but it introduces an element of partiality which may give rise to difficulties. A Civil Servant is not more entitled to a concession of this kind than a private employee, and it is obviously impossible to expect private employers ;-s a body to imitate the action of the Government if it makes the concession A desirable reform would be achieved if a more liberal separation ailr.wano were substituted for the present pittance. A general and liberal increase in the separation allowance would impose a considerable 'burden upon the finances of the Staw, and the Government may he inclined to temporise in the matter on the plea that no such definite call has yet been addressed to married, as to single, men. One of the latest utterances ; by a Minister on this point was made by Dit. M'Nab at Ellerslie. He said that if he had his way he would not allow one married man to go? into the ranks until he was satisfied that he had made full and ample provision for his wife in case he fell, and until every eligible single man in the country had offered his services. This, howover, was apparently a personal opinion, and, apart from the fact that married men have et listed, some of whom are not in affluent circumstances. t it seems . highly probable that married men'may before tho war ends be appealed to as insistently as single men arp being appealed tn now. The question of making provision for the wives and other dependants of married men should therefore bq faced more definitely than it has been up to tho present. There are other aspects and details of the recruiting problem which call for attention, but particularly as regards the matters touched upon there is an evident need of amendment and reform, and the Government will rot be doing its part in the very necessary work of infusing, more life into the cruiting campaign if it does not sco to it thai the necessary reforms are carried out.