THE INFANTRY SHORTAGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16589, 12 January 1916, Page 4

THE INFANTRY SHORTAGE.

It should not have escaped attention that there is not only a shortage of infantry <l in the Otago quota for the Twelfth Reinforcements that is to leave for camp this week, but also that the full contribution & of infantry from Otago for the Eleventh 1 Reinforcements has not yet been made up. t This is a matter which closely affects the r credit of Otago at the present time. It is of greater importance than the fact that ° a Recruiting Board, consisting of three Ministers of tho Crown, is at the present v time completing the details of a new v scheme of recruiting. While the new a schcme is being evolved, there are gaps 1 waiting to be filled in the Otago contribu- r tion to each of two bodies of reinforce- 1 merits. We do not pretend to say how j long it will take to bring the new recruiting scheme into full operation any more than we should care to say that it will l be a successful scheme when it is put into , operation. But it is not under this \ scheme that the vacancies in the Eleventh ■ and Twelfth Reinforcements are to be 1 filled. Unless the efficiency of the plan f nnder which the training of recruits is f carried out is to bo impaired there can be no delay in bringing the reinforcements up , to their requisite strength. For any < eligible man in Otago who is prepared to , serve in the infantry the excuse is no < longer available that the authorities will not take him when he offers his services. ■ They are anxious to get him and to send him into camp forthwith. Nor can the excuse that he wishes to enjoy himself during the holidays bofore he submits himself to camp discipline any longer avail him. If he possesses the spirit which animated the men who eagerly filled up the ranks of the Main Body and of the earlier Reinforcements —the men who have made the name of their country ring

throughout the Empire—there is no obstacle to prevent him from being within the course of a very few hours included in the number of men training for service abroad. There is, however, another spirit which is now being manifested tlirougliout the district and, if we mistake not, throughout the dominion. It is the spirit which prompts a man, in every respect eligible, to withhold his services because other men, equally eligible, are hot enlisting. In some cases it is pure thoughtlessness that deters young men from handing in their names to the recruiting officers, but it is indisputable that in a great many instances men of military age and ability have weighed the matter and come to the conclusion that as, in their opinion, there are others who should offer their services before they do, they will defer their own enlistment. In the meantime those who have so splendidly played their part at the front are wondering why young fellows whom they knew and respected are deliberately hanging back. What excuse will many young men without important ties, whose duty is to be in the fighting line, have to offer for their hesitation to enlist? How ignoble the tale they may have to tell later on of the opportunity they missed, and. how difficult it will be for them to disprove the imputation of actual cowardice I Though tho old aphorism that "one volunteer is worth ten pressed men " certainly involves an, exaggeration, there will be a difference in the ) public estimation of those who volunteered and of those who waited until they were compelled to fight. For thai is what it must come to unless recruits present themselves more freely in response to appeals. The pledged word of the Government must be kept, and if volunteers cannot be secured in sufficient numbers the dominion cannot avoid the adoption of the course which the Imperial Government has resolved to take in Great Britain. When compulsory service has to be enforced, the date of the introduction of the system will be watched, and the public will be curious to observe where the whip of compulsion was needed.