CORRESPONDENCE. RECRUITING IN PALMERSTON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10164, 1 September 1915, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

RECRUITING IN PALMERSTON.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The statement made by the local Recruiting Committee, that "there is a decided shortage in enlistments in the Borough," was read with as much astonishment as the other statement from the same source, "thai 300 men arc wanted from Palmerston North bv September 15." Citizens of Palmerston who have watched our young men march away and have sorrowfully read the casualty lists, will. 1 think, demand, something more than mere assertion. The unsupported statement that thorc is a shortage ot men from the Borough is an undeserved slur upon the town thai is worthy only of resentment—especially when it comes from a local committee. Such/ an allegation cannot be allowed to pa-ss without challenge. I have no means of access 1 to the official figures, but I know that one corps representative of the youth of Palmerston has done its dutv nobly, and that is tne J Battery. Up to the present, there has been no reason to suppose that Palmereton as a whole has not don c as well. If the Kecruiiing Committee has any facts in its possession capable of a contrary interpretation, u is its duty to make them public. As to the appeal for 300 recruits bv September 15, may I be permitted to ask what these men are required for. On a population basis, the rest of New Zealand would require to provide, at the same ratio, some 28,000? men in the next tortnight. By a strange coincidence, the issue of your paper containing the appeal also contained the definite statement of the Minister for Defence in a telegram from Auckland that "We have enough men for the two new battalions of infantry and for the 9th Reinforcements." Does the Recruiting Committee really know anything about the business'' Either the Committee or the Minister appear to be out of touch with the position * regard to recruiting.—l am. e t c ,, . P ALMERSJONIAN.