Evening Post. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1915.

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 87, 11 October 1915, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1915.

THE EMPIRE'S CALL "It is not want of courage that prevents men enlisting, but the failure to appreciate the seriousness of the situation. . . Responsibility for victory or defeat rests upon those who have not yet responded to the call." These two sentences from the stirring manifesto of the British Labour Party admirably snm up the position with regard to recruiting in a manner which is equally applicable to this country. Our young men are not lacking in courage or patriotism. The quickening of their response to the Empire's call after such incidents as the first landing at the Dardanelles and the sinking of the Lusitania are a proof that their hearts are in the right place, and that they are swayed in exactly the same way as their fellows in the Mother Country. But in both cases there is a danger that in the absence of a series of dramatic incidents the steadily growing gravity of the situation will not evoke a steadily increasing response proportionate to its demands. In Great Britain the Labour manifesto, which nobody will suspect of exaggeration in such a matter, says that 30,000 recruits must be raised every week if the efficiency of our armies is to be maintained and the decisive defeat of the military tyranny of Germany assured. This represents a total of 130,000 a month, which is not far short of the full strength of the largest Expeditionary Force .ever contemplated by Britain previously to the war — so rapidly have the standards changed under the pressure of this terrible ordeal ! But the change in our own case has also been startling. Mr. Allen was accused of military megalomania— of an insane craving for a "standing army" entirely unsuited to the needs of this peaceful and remote democracy — when, with a forethought which everybody now admires, he proposed to arrange for a New Zealand Expeditionary Force of 8000 men. Yet the forces already despatched total nearly five times that number, and, in order to carry out our present commitments and maintain these forces at full strength, we must despatch 4000 men every two months, or the equivalent of three times the original strength of the Expeditionary Force every year. Excellent as has been the response to every call hitherto, it is clear that other methods must be adopted to bring home to our young men the urgency of the need, if obligations more than twice as large as what we had undertaken at the beginning of the year are to be duly honoured. In Great Britain the alternative to the success of the Labour Party's gallant effort, which we described on Saturday as "the last charge of the voluntary system," is admittedly the adoption of compulsion. The issue has created a good deal of unnecessary friction, owing to the strenuous and perhaps premature fashion in which it has been pushed by authorities held in suspicion by the democracy. But at any time within the last two or three months the nation has been probably ready to take this extreme step, if Lord Kitchener and Mr. Asquith said the word. They have wisely confined their public utterances to pointing out the need for more men, and endeavouring to make the best of the voluntary system, but it is impossible to suppose that they will hesitate to call for conscription, or the nation to respond to the call, if the recruiting campaign which the Labour Party has so eloquently launched fails to provide the weekly quota necessary for the country's safety. As Mr. Asquith says in a message to his constituents published to-day, the nation's resolve to secure* victory at any cost "has never wavered from the first moment we took up arms, and no momentary difficulties can for an instant weaken it." The responsibility for overcoming the difficulties presented by the voluntary system of recruiting rests with him, and if his friends of the Labour Party fail to assist him in making a success of it, he will surely show himself worthy of the popular determination to which he refers by adopting the only other alternative to disaster. In New Zealand the possibility of conscription has hardly yet been seriously entertained. The response to every call has hitherto been so admirable that there has been no need to think of a change, and it is unfortunate that Parliament should be rising just as the pinch is about to be felt. This at least is clear, that improved organisation is just as necessary to assure the success of the voluntary system in this country as it is in England. It is to the credit of Wellington, which has an excellent record under the methods hitherto adopted, that it should now be taking the lead in a new movement. The Mayor in particular is to be congratulated upon the success of the meeting on Saturday night at which the movement was instituted. The speeches were pf an inspiring character, the immediate results were excellent and the ultimate results should save the Minister of Defence from all anxiety if the example is generally followed.