THE NEED FOR RECRUITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16040, 5 October 1915, Page 6

THE NEED FOR RECRUITS.

The Government can do much to encourage recruiting by making known in every part of the Dominion the need that is now officially recognised. We must either have conscription or we must have an active public opinion directed to the fostering of sense of duty among those who can most easily go to the front. Firstly and foremostly there should be an end of the chilling procedure under which enthusiasm is nipped in the bud and willing young men are kept waiting at home when they ought to be in training. Unless a change is made in this unsympathetic system the present difficulty will recur every time reinforcements are sent forward. To arouse and sustain enthusiasm the Government should publish monthly the recruiting figures of each and every district side by side with the number of men in each district of normal enlisting age. Nothing is to bo gained by concealing or excusing the notorious deficiency in certain areas, for this deficiency is due not to lack of patriotism but to the repeated suggestion that there is no local lack of enthusiasm. Then again we might do better if less were heard of the duty of single men and more of the duty of every man able to enlist without special hardship. The married man who is able to enlist should not bo persuaded that the single man ought to go first; such married men .will be the best recruiting agents and will greatly assist in convincing single men and others of their duty. Another way in which the • Government can strengthen the recruiting movement is to give constant preference in employment throughout the state services to soldiers with honourable discharges. Examination qualifications might well be waived to a reasonable extent in their favour. Meanwhile, single men of military age should receive no permanent appointments in the state services and should certainly not be engaged to fill vacancies caused by enlistments. As for growing lads under 20 they should in every case be refused enlistment they may all be needed before the war is over and should be held back for the final reinforcements.