A CALL TO MANHOOD.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 2858, 1 February 1916, Page 4

A CALL TO MANHOOD.

.— We are now entering upon tho most critical period of the war, when each and every part of the Empire must make a special effort to send men and munitions to the front. Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener has stated in no uncertain terms that he wants both these essentials, and that with a sufficient number of the one and an adequate quantity of the other the Allies will hold the war in the hollow of their hands. New Zealand has done nobly up to the present. Her sons have enlisted as soldiers of the King by tens of thousands, and when tested on the battlefield they have, by their splendid gallantry and achievements, already created an imperishable record of bravery. From the hillsides of Galiipoli, from the trenches where gallant men are fighting for the honour and prestige of our race, the appeal has now come to their comrades who are still in New Zealand with such force that few of British blood will be able to resist. I know the appeal is not being made in vain; I know the response will be worthy of the manhood of the country; but let me say personally to every man of military age whose responsibilities to dependents do not compel him to remain in the Dominion, that it is his bounden duty, in justice to his country, in justice to his fellow-New Zealanders who have died fighting for honour and liberty, and whose bones rest to-day in foreign soil—nay, in justice to himself as a citizen of the Empire —to respond in a courageous and patriotic spirit to the urgent massage from our kin across tho seas, and to say to the military authorities of Jthe Dominion, in words familiar but expressive, " Here I am, send me—send me."