RECRUITS WANTED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17264, 4 September 1916, Page 6

RECRUITS WANTED.

Just why tho announcement of the enrolment' of the Expeditionary Force Rcsbrvo should have had a depressing effect upon recruiting it is difficult to say. AVo should rather have expected tho opposite effect, but the fact remains thnt men have not' been offering in sufficient number, and the twentieth draft of reinforcements has a shortage of over two hundred men. Canterbury, we aro pleased to know, has a smaller deficiency, actually and relatively, than any other military district in Now Zealand, but it is to be hoped that the thirty odd men still required from these parts will come forward without further • delay. Tho Ohristchurch area last week saw another mild "boom" in enlistments, tho total being 268, an nvcrago daily of nearly 47. However, experience has shown that figures of this kind bavo to be heavily discounted, there being a wido difference between tho numbers of onlistments and of men secured for service. In this matter tlio conclusion has been forced upon tho intelligent observer that some explanation is duo. Canterbury, for reasons wo have not been able to 'fathom, has throughout the war generally shown a smaller ratio of efficient recruits to enlistments than has obtained in tho North Island—a fact which seems to indicate somo variety in the methods of examination., or in the standards of physical tests applied. That, however, is by tho way. For the present, tho consideration we desire to impress upon tho community is that more men aro wanted for tho war and that if they are not forthcoming, in Canterbury and elsewhere, tho principle of compulsion will havo to operate. Possibly that is tho fairest system. There is a great deal to be said for and |not much against tho 3lilitary Service Act, which is a concrete expression of the inescapable logic and justice of the situation. The Act imposes an equal liability upon every man able to do so to servo his country in her hour of peril, and .that should appeal to the average mind as being perfectly just. But for all that, wo confess to a strong sentimental regard for voluntaryism, and we shall rejoico if the Dominion can como through the struggle and be abler to put it on record that all her soldiers were volunteers. That may be the case if tho 'n manhood. of the country so decides, but not otherwise. The Government has been entirely frank and honest with the people, from first to last, in regard to this subject. The Minister of Defence, though personally a compulsionist, has said over and over, again, and has been supported by the Prime Minister and other leading members of the Cabinet, that so long as the Expeditionary Force can bo kept up to strength under the voluntary system there will be no balloting for conscripts—except under the special provision for selecting members of individual shirking families, who should certainly bo forced to take up their share of service. But, as will bo seen in our news columns this morning, Mr Allen has no intention of being short of men. The Twentieth Reinforcements, he declares, will go away up to strength. Except when sufficient transports were unavailable, no draft of men has yet been dispatched short of the number required, and tho Minister will be supported by the people in bis determination that that line record shall not be broken. 3len included in the first division of the Reserve who would rather servo as volunteers than as conscripts ought to exercise their right oi choice without delay. If they .do nob they will assuredly lose tho oppor- | trinity.