RAILWAYS AND RECRUITS.

Evening Star, Issue 15776, 13 April 1915, Page 7

RAILWAYS AND RECRUITS.

TO THE EDITOR. .Sir, —The Genera! Manager of the New Zealand Hallways says that “ owing to the depletion of staff caused by the granting of leave to members to accompany the Expeditionary Forces it becomes necessary, in order to provide for the efficient working of the department, to decline to grant further leave to members desiring to enlist.” When Lord Kitchener, on the outbreak of the* war, asked for the services of some hundreds of telegraphists, lie was told that the men could not ho spared. But Kitchener of Khartum was not to be trifled with, and the men were soon forthcoming. Boos the General Manager of our railways know that the British Empire is at war. and that every man willing and able is urgently wanted at the front for tho express purpose of saving that Empire, including the few thousand miles of railway over which he is at present General Manager? It is about time that New Zealand officialdom woke up to the momentous issues at stake. Not only the 'Railway Department, but other Government departments are refusing to grant leave to men willing to serve. I would call the attention of the Recruiting Committee to this matter. I say most emphatically that every man in New Zealand willing and able to serve the Empire at this critical time, whether in private or public service, should be received with open arms. ‘‘Efficient working of the department,” indeed! 'Where would the department be if the Empire went down? Where there is a will there is a way. Are not women taking the places of men both in Britain and France? Are there not some thousands of superannuated men in New Zealand, retired from the various Government departments, who would be only too glad to serve their country at the present time, by re-entering the Service until tho war is over? As an old railway man, 1 know of scores of retired men who are still fit and well, whose services could be utilised for the purpose of setting free the younger inf-n who are eager to enlist.—l am, etc., Awake. April 12.