NELSON’S QUOTA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 9 January 1940, Page 4

NELSON’S QUOTA

; SECOND ECHELON FOR s OVERSEAS t 1 60 MEN STILL REQUIRED 8 : 3 1 ] RECRUITING RALLY LAST 3 EVENING e! ’ | “Men are wanted, who will come j forward and answer the call?" 2 1 These words, with which Colonel j C. B. Brereton concluded his appeal j for recruits for the Special Milij tary Force at a recruiting rally at the Church Steps last evening, sumi marised completely the purpose of j the gathering. It was disclosed by ! Colonel Brereton that of Nelson’s ! quota for the Second Echelon of 120, 60 men were still needed. t Led by the Nelson Regimental Band; d! a Large number of ex-servicemen and | ejthe Ist battalion of the Nelson, Marl-j I.: borough and West Coast Regiment; s 1 paraded from the Drill Hall through the. tl city streets to the Church Steps where ! e quite a large gathering of the public; r had assembled. d Colonel Brereton was introduced by d the Deputy-Mayor, Mr E. R. Neale, who ». explained that the function was part of ? a Dominion-wide recruiting rally for the Special Force. Those qualified to speak in a recruiting rally, continued Mr Neale, belonged to two classes: j either men who had been through the mill themselves in the last war or men ’ who had enlisted for service in the pre- ” sent conflict. Colonel Brereton, therefore, had every right to speak on this ’ subject. There was no need to tell returned soldiers of his services in the j past when he had commanded the 12th .j Nelson Company. Enlisting within two hours of the opening of recruiting in New Zealand he left for overseas service in October 1914. . 12th NELSON REGIMENT IN GREAT WAR t i Those who had read Colonel Brere--3 ton’s book “Tales of Three Campaigns” > would remember his reference to the . Nelson men who served in the last war 3 when he said that he could not find . words to express his admiration of the t men of his command, the 12th Nelson t Regiment. , “I am speaking to-night not to the Returned Soldiers or the Territorials \ who have paraded, but to the general t public of Nelson,” said Colonel Brere- , ton. “To-night we must face the task l of completing our quota of 120 men for r the Second Echelon of the Second New l Zealand Expeditionary Force. We re- , quire 60 men to complete the number, [ and we must find the men quickly or . fail in our task. In the past Nelson I has answered many such calls and never | failed; I will be surprised if we fail now”. Colonel Brereton paid a tribute to the Territorial Force whose older members, he said, had comprised a large percen- ' tage of the First Echelon. The country i owed much also to the Returned Soli diers, both individually and as a body, . for what they had done in the present i campaign. i “In common with other ex-servicemen > I know war in most of its phases,” con- , tinued Colonel Brereton, “but knowing . quite well what war is, I believe most l ex-soldiers would willingly serve again

if that were possible, but generally they ] are not able to do so. Many others j here to-night are prevented by equally j good reasons from offering their services; but there are those who are fit ; and able, who can complete Nelson’s j quota and take their part in the struggle ! now being waged. j “In this war we know clearly whom iwe are fighting, and what we are fight- ' ing for. We are fighting the German people, a powerful and very united nation. It would be folly to under-rate them, and we have no justification whatever for doing so. “No amount of civilised argument has been able to restrain Herr Hitler, and it is evident that there is only one cure for the disease his country is suffering from; and it is a drastic one. POLAND S PLIGHT “Think of Poland, attacked and destroyed only because she was weak, and think of her people in the middle of a bitter winter, women and children halfstarved, half-frozen and homeless. All suffering through the senseless brutality of Germany. This was carried out, mark you, by the citizen army of Germany. This shows in plain fact the present policy of the German nation. We are fighting, as the only practical means left to us to prevent a worldwide spread of this crime, and others like it, and similar crimes that Hitler and his willing helpers are still planning. “Britain and France warned Germany time and again, and both nations looked on without interfering until they could suffer the shame of it no longer. We know too, that the murderous instinct of Hitler has no limit and that he will extend his methods to the whole world if he is able. “This is the plain issue for which we fight, to curb Hitler’s conquering theory, or be conquered by it. It is a big, hard task, a job for men that are men in the best sense of the word, and that is why I am calling on the Nelson men to-night. It is the most honourable job that can fall to a British subject. WHAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE ARE DOING "Think of that splendid team of men and women of the British Empire and France who will fight in this war against senseless cruelty,” concluded Colonel Brereton, “that team is all that stands between civilisation and barbarism. This is the chance for Nelsonians to join that wonderful team. Men are wanted, who will come?” The proceedings were then concluded with the playing of the National Anthem by the Regimental Band.