RECRUITING FOR WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15821, 19 January 1915, Page 8

RECRUITING FOR WAR.

ENTHUSIASTIC VOLUNTEERS.

MANY DISAPPOINTMENTS

FAULTS OF DEPARTMENT.

.An official of the Legion of Frontiers-

men who has taken a keen interest in recruiting since the outbreak of war. gave his views on the subject to a Hkrat.ii reporter yesterday. He said: "I lay any blame, if there is any shortage of men, not on the men themselves as a whole but on the recruiting system. At the outbreak cf war a remarkable wave of patriotism swept over the country and thousands of men were leaving their work on farm and station in order to enlist. What hap- I pened ? It was announced that first pre-; ference would be given to the territorials i and that so many offers had been received ■ from territorials that very fen outsiders would be required, and those who would' be admitted would have to join some j territorial unit. In the end, in the force I sent away, the outsiders outnumbered the j territorials by three to one, but thousands j of men had been turned disappointed away. ' then it was discovered that more men i could be taken from this end of NewZealand, and word was passed along and notices were actually posted up in the streets. What about those men from the country who had travelled long distances in their eagerness and had thrown up I their work? Again and again nan' - of' them journeyed to the recruiting stations i and were disappointed. I personally know i of scores of instances of men wno came to I Auckland. They had to leave their ships i and their jobs on farm and station :n ! order to come in to enlist. Week after j week they were hanging about. Ihey were told their chance would come when the main force got away. Some of them, | reduced to the last penny, had to go out! and look for fresh work in the country. I Why were these men not taken into a concentration camp at once'.' The Defence Department knew it had to raise reinforcing drafts, why could it not have taken the men on the spot? I see that the Department still glibly advises the men to go back to their work after enrolling and wait till called. Does the Department think all these men live in the next street? In hundreds of cases going back to work meant signing on for lengthy voyages or taking up contract* that would bind the men tor months | ahead. Others get a mail once a month. I Some relied on the Department sending I notices and haven't received them yet. The Quota System. ''The quota system was a fetish. 1 notice the Minister lor Defence has now admitted it was useless, and would have to be I abandoned. I might give very many in- | stances of attempts to make ved tape of j the Imperial brand fit varied and peculiar ! colonial conditions. I am convinced that j what is needed in this country is a good I deal fewer Departmental regulations "and I a great deal more common sense. Now i common sense ought to tell recruiting officers that Christmas and New Year, during war, is no time to be absent from their posts, yet men coming in to enlist at Christmas were told to return en Jan- } nary 4. after the holidays.. Some of them had come long journeys. How were they ' going to wait about town till January 4? j Two of them are now working their pas- I sages to England, two others have gone I to Australia, and others have cone back i to the bush. One little crowd of men ] journeyed from near Cape Pur.rway to J Oisborne—and anyone who knows the ' East Coast knows what that meansand I desired to enlist just after the war broke out. They haven't got in the forces vet. To oblige a man in any district to np'plv to a territorial o'neer "in that particular district is an absurd system, and the sooner it is knocked on the head the better.

The Medical Test

" Then attain, me.n are accepted subject to a medical test, and have to return later or await notification of the medical test. Why should the men not be dealt with on the spot instead of being kept hanging about ?

"The expeditionary force was hurriedly organised, of course, but the Department ought to have been prepared to the extent of having an intelligence branch, which, working on common sense, could have applied or altered regulations to tit circumstances. There is room for the appointment of at least two good, practical, common-sense colonial officers who should have a roving commission, and be empowered to report to the Minister direct on a working basis for dealing with -rifle clubs, national reserves, and so on. •'The whole system of the expeditionary force seems to be based on the assumption that only young single men, whose wages are about 8s per day, will be soldiers. When will the authorities realise that each country must model its own system? What does very well in England doesn't do here, and what does here iin't applicable to England. If a country is worth living in it is worth fighting for. I might also add that if it is worth fighting for the dependents of those who offer their lives are worth providing for. Why should the State expect its'men to go forth to do battle for it when it does not provide tho wives and children of those men with an equal living to that provided by their breadwinners in time of peace? Is the patriotism to be all on the si.le of the men and their dependents? These who do not go out to fight ought to have to pay, and keep on paying, by means of a direct war tax. for the keep of the wives and children of cur soldiers and for the future of those who return maimed. The Government announces widows' and orphans' pensions, but* what does the pension amount to? A mere charitable dole. The wives and children of the soldiers ought to receive, as a matter of right, pay equivalent to what their breadwinner secured for them. Let the State send out intelligent, practical ntiicers to eet the men on their own ground and ascertain their difficulties and th<-.'r wants and not leave the recruiting work to officials who. hou:id by regulations, can only look on the men as die common mob and try to fit them to unintelligent and unelastic regulations. '" Whether the young men of the cities hove volunteered in their due proportion or not, I cannot say : the m<>n from the country certainly have. But Ido not like to see so many able-bodied, single men about the streets when T know "that so many married men have gene to the front. If the Defence Department had established i) common-sense recruiting system, there should have been no need, so far. to have Accepted even one man who had others dependent upon hie earnings.*'