Slack Recruiting

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 105, 27 January 1940, Page 8

Slack Recruiting

Sir, —The above heading for a letter is distasteful to me from the point of view of one who detests war, but as your correspondent “Ajax” has used it in “The Dominion” of Tuesday, January 23, I must reply under the same heading. In my opinion people should not be unnecessarily harassed into enlisting. Either it is convenient for a man to enlist or it isn’t. That might sound casual, but you can’t catch a bird simply by making a grab at it. I think most people are only too well aware of the fact that things which are done wholeheartedly are a thousand times more valuable than things which are not. I have seen that signature “Ajax’ before, but I am not sure that it was in “The Dominion.” All I can say is that it is a pity the axe in it does not bear some slight resemblance to the one George Washington used. How is the following for an incorrect statement of facts: — “I do not blame those who argue like this because they have been influenced to think against our Empire and the Old Country by some of those in charge of their education for many years past, and now that we are at war to defend our very existence these pernicious doctrines are actually being spread among them by certain publications which work openly against recruiting.” Your correspondent has his opinion, ■but I have mine. After all, one has tp go by things as one actually finds them.

Another thing—many of the boys of military age are sons of those who fought in the Great War, therefore, the call of Empire is already implanted in them without any unnecessary harassing.—I am, etc., ENGLAND. Wellington, January 24.