Recruiting Addresses

Grey River Argus, 5 January 1940, Page 8

Recruiting Addresses

AT GREYMOUTH THEATRES The recruiting appeal was carried a stage further last evening, when the audiences at the Greymouth theatres. were addressed in brief speeches. Mr A. H. McKane, President of the Greymouth Returned Soldiers’ Association, was warmly received at the Opera Hbuse j where he spoke to a large audience. The First Echelon would shortly be leaving New Zealaifd, he said, and it had become necessary to secure all the reinforcements necessary. The time appeared to be near when the New Zealand troops might be in the front .fighting line, and their work there would be useless unless they could be sure that reinforcements were coming. “Our nation is at war, not by the wish of the people,” said Mr McKane, “but because of the efforts of a nation to dominate the world, a nation which had by force taken away the whole of civic rife of its people. That would be our fate, too, if the young mtn of *he country were no-, prepared to come out and help those not able to go.” (Applause).

Mr McKane said that 60 men were required in the Greymouth district for the Second Echelon by January 12. It was on record that in the last War, Westland contributed a greater proportion of troops in comparison with the population than any other part of New Zealand. To-day, Westland was in the happy position of being one of the few districts which had supplied its full quota to the First Echelon. He felt that men would be forthcoming to fill the Second Echelon by Friday of next week. He appealed to those who were considering offering their services to do so without delay, and to those who had not yet made up their minds he would ask that they give the matter weighty consideration in the next few days. It was not a personal appeal, said Mr McKane, but one which came from, the Government and the nation. The Government had pledged its wholehearted support to the Motherland only after very grave consideration. The Government was in possession of the full facts of the war, and for that reason now appealed for men to fill the gaps left by the men of the First Echelon who were about to depart from New Zealand. If the people of the Dominion wished to remain under the British Flag, they had to fight for it, and the nation appealed to-day for no more than was done by the thousands of New Zealand men who gave their services 25 years ago. The young men of New Zealand, he felt, would worthily uphold the traditions of the troops of former years, and would enlist without delay to help their country. At the Regent Theatre, Mr G. G. M. Mitchell addressed the audience at the interval on lines similar to those of Mr McKane. He was also accorded a warm reception.