NEW ZEALAND'S GREAT TASK

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 89, 13 October 1915, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S GREAT TASK

The statement made by the Hon. James Allen to Parliament last night should make a deep impression on the country. It is as comprehensive as it k bold, and shows that to meet her war commitments in men, material, and money New Zealand's resources will be very heavily taxed. Following the New Zealand Government's offer to "consider the question of supplying increased reinforcements, the Imperial Government has now asked us to increase the rate for infantry and mounted rifles from 15 to 2C per cent, per month, artillery (gunners only) and engineers from 5 to 20 per cent, per month, and from 5 to 7 per cent, for the remainder. Seeing that we have doubled the size of our Force in the field (including the new battalions) this means that instead of sending reinforcements at the rate of 1800 every two months, as originally, we shall now have to send reinforcement* at the rate of 2500 per month, or nearly three times as many. Those are great figures; they mean, in brief, that if the war lasts the full three-year period New Zealand is committed to sending close upon 100,000 men to the front. But it is one thing for the Government to call up these men ; it is another thing to deal with them — house, clothe,, feed, equip, and train them, and then transport them over thousands of miles of sea. In Mr. Allen's ' statement, however, the public are furnished with further convincing proof that the carrying out of the country's war policy is in competent hands. The Defence Department has demonstrated in the past that though greatly under-staffed — most of the staff officers have gone to the front — it is able to surmount great difficulties, and presumably it will be able to cope with these latest demands also if it is given a fair chance. Is it to be given that chance? Or, with an almost superhuman load upon its shoulders, is it to be embarrassed with impracticable proposals and carping criticism' We know what the -answer should be : that not only must the Defence Department be given a chance to carry on its enormous work, but that all must do what they can to help. That can best be done by carrying out the Department's wishes, notably in supporting its recruiting system, which has successfully stood the test of time and has produced such admirable results as evidenced last Saturday and demonstrated in the Dardanelles, where in August last Trentham-trained men won world renown. The whole-hearted approval given by Sir Joseph Ward to the existing recruiting system last night should have a salutary effect on critics in that direction.