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Otago Daily Times, Issue 16276, 8 January 1915, Page 4

KITCHENER'S SECOND MILLION. We do not receive anything very definite in the way of news as to the progress that is being made in the direction of increasing by a second million the strength of the British army upon the efforts of which so much must depend in the near future. Tt was hardly to be expected, perhaps, that the recruits necessary to bring the quota of men under training up to this imposing figure would pour in as rapidly as they did in providing Lord Kitchener with his first million, while the continued growth of the number of men to be equipped and trained must obviously be making serious demands upon the resources of the War Office. A month after the war broke out Mr Asqnith stated in the House of Commons that everything in connection with the campaign had been foreseen and provided for with the excepti(T. of the necessity for an enormous increase of the regular forces, for whicn lie Government was unable to provide adequate equipment and training at one*-. In the interval that has elapsed since trv;n it may be assumed that strenuous eflbsts have successfully coped with the extra ordinary emergency that was created. We do not hear that Lord Kitchener finds the number of recruits offering at this stajje less than satisfactory, but there is evidence that the necessity of impressing upon the young men of the nation •>. sense of their duty to their country is considered as important as ever. Thus l)r Macnamara, a member of the Government though not in the Cabinet, has been saying plainly that if the thousands of young men who were not answering their country's call thought they were going to en joy freedom and immunity at the exp.'nsis of others they would not do so long. Tlvs reads verv like a threat of conscription or compulsory service, although there is probably no need to interpret it as er, pressing any serious intention on U:e part of the Government to prepese anything of the kind, or indeed as more than a vigorous argument intended to stimulate a sense of duty in those to whom ; t wjs particularly addressed. Comment! ig en the magnitude of the task of raising the second million men, The Times exj-resses the hope that voluntary service will continue to supply the needs of the nation in the way of fighting m<?n. It observes however, that the Eimpire is only beginning its task, and that "we must not falter in our destiny but must face the issue with calmness and foresight.' The military correspondent of that journal asserts that the assurance is needed tha> voluntary service can be relied on to find the numbers that are required, and emphasises the need of drafts to maintain ihe armies in the field. Up to tho eni •' October the total number of casualties suffered by the British forces in France and Belgium was set down as 57,000 of all ranks, this including killed, wounded, and missing. Manifestly a, greater number cf freshly trained troops will be required to provide an equivalent for such losses as those which have been suffered by the flower of the regular army. Not without hard logic is it pointed out, moreover, that Great Britain's responsibilities in the field have little more than begun, since it is from Great Britain that the reserves must come that will eventually break and crush the staggering German line, and since, when it comes to driving the enemy back into his own country, numbers will be needed such ae no British commander has hitherto handled in war.