THE CALL FOR MEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16822, 12 April 1918, Page 4

THE CALL FOR MEN.

DOMINION'S NEW EFFORTHASTENING REINFORCEMENTS GREATER STRENGTH LIKELY. TANK BATTALION WANTED. STATEMENT BY MR. MASSEY. [lit TELEGRAPH— CORRKSrONDENT.! WELUNCTuN. Ihnnds- , The Prime Minister today made his. promised statement in the House of Repre-1 fentatives regarding the additional effort to be made by the country in response to • the appeal by the Prime Minister of' Britain. Mr. Massey said that at the beginning of the crisis a message had been received from tho Prime Minister of Britain. That; message, which had been published in the! newspapers, had been supplemented by, another message, which was secret and I

'confidential, giving further parti, ulars and detit.ls, the position on the date when the appeal for more men was made, and a 3 forecast of what might be expected within • tho next few months. This information could not be divulged to the House, and ( he mentioned too lact to show that the ,' Government did not act without sufficient r ' reasons. On receipt ol tins telegram cer- : tain measures were taken immediately. ll'tlio liibl thing to be done was to put i forward tho ueparture ol tho next two ; dialU of reiuioicements, for which, tor-; 9 . tunute.y, ships were practically ready and 1' available. Xno sailing ol one reiniorce-i . nieul bad been put lorward by one week, ; . and that of the second by tiueo weeks- , '1 las, of court*, meant that the reinforce-' monts about to go into camp would re-1 quite to be assembled at conespona-ngiy j " i earlier dates, and this would entail tne| 0 • mobilisation of the tirst drall ol tho e ! Second Division men a month earlier than -1 win anticipated. I Extracts from Official Reply. jj To the second message, in which a '' request was made that a tank battalion • ' should be lormed out of accumulated re- - 3' inlorceiiiciils, a reply was sent, lrom which "'he made the following extracts:— k ' " (1) The Government wou.d approve of | the formation of the tank battalion from . I reserves at present in England. :! •' (2) The torty-tirst reinforcements will f be brought into camp four weeks • earlier > than notified, and tne lortysecond rein- ! turcemenis will be assembled hvo weeks I earlier, I " (3) Tho thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh 1 reinforcements will be sent from New Zea--3 land, fully trained, olio week and tliree • weeks, respectively, prior to the normal 1 dates of despatch. -, " \4) The New Zealand Government is J willing that any surplus of reserves in 3 England may be used at the front if, in l tho opinion of the mihtaiy author. t including the general in command of the 1 Army Corps, iliey are required, having; i due regard to tho fact that the scarcity ot - shipping may make it difficult for rein- . foi'unnents to be forwarded regularly lrom j hero. , " The Prime Minister desires further to ; inform Hi) Excellency that the New Zca • land Government is prepared to increase 1 the monthly draft to the number coni ' sidcred necessary, and on this point partiI cularly Ministers will be glad to hear lrom i the Secretary of State at, tho earliest posi sible date.' -j Mr. Masse said the tank battalion ? would be 700 strong, and that it would - j have to be reinforced at tho rate of 50 per 0 month. In connection with paragraph ■ j 2, abovo quoted, he could say that as a -1 result of the decision arrived at the forty--01 first reinforcements, which were duo to a , nbbilise from May 28 to June 1, would - now assemble from April 30 to May 4, and the forty second draft, due to mobilise 1 from June 25 to June 29, would now be . brought into camp from May 21 to May • 25. Kbth of the drafts would be composed - partly of Second Division men. He added that in his opinion tho number of men m , the reinforcements would have to be Increased considerably, and ha had informed the Imperial Government that we were 1 willing to increase tho reinforcements. 1 What tho increase in numbers would bo he was riot in a position to state at pre- . sent, but advice was daily and hourly ' I expected from the Imperial Government . | on the subject, and the matter would then be definitely Bottled. 3 s Men tho First Duty. No one could read Mr. Lloyd George's - speech in Jho Imperial Parliament t without coming to the 'conclusion that > j the fato of tho Empire might bo j I trembling in tho balance to-day. «j Personally, he had no doubt of it, and f therefore it behoved us-to do everything 3 within our power to meet tho present 3 crisis. There was no sacrifice that any part of the Empire ought not to bo pre- . pared to make. They had heard tho critics, who said that we should give moro attention to the production of food than to manpower. He knew the importance of food production and man-power, and it i had been his especial business to see that 1' production was maintained in the country. 31 Rut in the present situation man-power I was undoubtedly the first consideration. He did not think that this coulu ;;• isibly be disputed. As soon as a reply was rej ceived from the Imperial Government, the r j Government would have to consider this '! matter again, and he believed that Cabinet I would do tho right thing. He behoved '• they would have to commence with a t more complete "combing out" of the ;.' single men of military age than had yet [ taken place. (Hear, hear.) He could . not help thinking that there was still a very large number of men of military age , physically fit, who had not yet been called upon. 1 An Hon. Member: Thousands of them. Mr. Maajey said he would not express I any opinion as to the number of them. ,It might al&i be necessary—and on this ( also he would not at present express an '" opinion—to raise the miliary age. The n i fui't that it had been done in Britain '"l showed how grave the situation was con- ' sidered to be there. He was pretty cert , tain that we should have to jhut down v on non-pit-entiul industries in order that r the men employed in those industries might be transferred from those industries ; lo industries which were essential or to [ I the miliary forces of the Dominion. ' Mr. N« worthy: The race meetings. l The Government's Policy. I

1 Mr. Massoy said there wore a great many i things that hud not been done up till the I present which would have to be done if i New Zealand was to do its duty in tho I present war. If we were to do this we ' must be prepared to put into the scale ' every ounce of energy that we could bring ''to bear. He wished the House to under- ' stand that the (iovernmout was prepared ' to go the whole length in doing New Zea- ' land's duty, and in m king Parliament and ! the people to make any sacrifice which might be necessary to bring this war to '.the conclusion which they all desire. ! The Prime Minister later made an im--1 port-ant addition to his statement regard- '! nig the increase in the monthly reinforce'intents. The Imperial Government, he | said, had been asked to advise as to tho i ! number of reinforcements in addition that , now would be required. On everv occasion previously on which the New Zealand I Government has asked for advice on this I I point the information has been promptly l ! given, but if for any reason the advice 1 did not come on this occasion the New ' i Zealand Government would of its own ': responsibility increase the drafts and send ', the number of men it thought the country M was ablo to send, having regard to the ■ I probable duration of the war. ( They did ' know the number of men available, but • I they did not know the probable duration > of the war, and on this the Imperial '! Government might not be able to give ad- > vice. If it should be necessary for the • Government to act in this matter without i the advice of the Imperial Government he » would ask Parliament and the country to back up the Government* - ■•■"•'

Mr. Massey said his i -ply to the first message from the Imperial Government contained the following :—" New Zealand has pledged herself to maintain her present establishment of the Expeditionary Forces in the field, whatever the sacrifice. Sew Zealand has invariably supplied to the full every man required at the rate of reinforcements indicated from time to time by the Imperial Government. His Majesty's Government has now again only to indicate to the New Zealand Government if increased reinforcements are required, and they will be supplied. It is requested that an early rfply be sent, giving details of new estimates of month V reinforcements as a result of the present fighting." In the discussion which followed, members contended that even more drastic " combing out" must be enforced, and that the police were not vigilant enough in detecting deserters. In reply, Ministers contended that "combing out" was bring enforced, and that so far as the legal position allowed the police were doing all in their power to arrest deserters. Mr. Massey said efforts were being made bv the Defence Department to discover all eligible men. Out of 9530 elie b!es who had not answered the call. 6666 had been accounted for, which, he thought, was evidence that the director of recruiting and the director of personal services have been doing excellent work.

CLASS B RESERVISTS. FIRST BALLOT THIS MONTH. POSSIBLY 5000 NAMES. [BY TELEGRAM.— SI'ECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Minister for Defence, Sir James Allen, stated that a ballot of Class D Reservists of the Second Division would be taken this month, instead of in June, this being necessary to the fulfilment of the promise to the Second Division League to give all Second D.vision men at least three months' clear notice between the date of medical examination and the date of mobilisation. The special Gazette to be published on April 23, therefore, in addition to the usual accretions in the two divisions, would include the first ballot draft of Class B reservists. It was impossible tcrtatolhe number that would bo called, as the Government was awaiting advice from the Imperial Government with respect to the strength of the New Zealand reinforcements. In all probability, however, not less than 6000 names would be balloted for.

REINFORCEMENT DRAFTS. DATES OF MOBILISATION. ; ANNOUNCEMENT BY MINISTER. The Minister for Defence has announced that a reinforcement draft will not bo dropped this month, as was intended. The forty-first draft will not, therefore, go to camp at the end of May, but will leave on or about May 2, as originally fixed. The dates of concentration of the subsequent drafts should bo approximately as follow :— 42nd Reinforcements End of May 43rd Reinforcements June 21 44th Reinforcements July 19 46th Reinforcements August 16 46th Reinforcements September 13 It has already been announced that men accepted for later reinforcement* may now apply for admission to the forty-first draft if they so desire.