RECRUITING IN AUSTRALIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 45

RECRUITING IN AUSTRALIA

REASONS FOR COMPARATIVE FAILURE.

'(Fbom Ocb Own Cobrespondknt.j SYDNEY, February 13. Although the number of men being sent from Australia is not sufficient to maintain the Australian active service divisions at full strength, transports full of reinforcements still leave these shores regularly. But the number thus departing gets, fewer and fewer, and the recruiting problem becomes more and more difficult of solution. The commonwealth is covered by a great, expensive recruiting organisation, in which returned soldiers are largely employed. Recently a conference of all theso officers was held in Sydney, and they were asked to state some of the influences —apart from cowardice and selfishness—which acted against recruiting. Here are some of the answers on which there was practical unanimity: There was so much muddling by the incompetent Defence Department in connection with the payment of allowances to soldiers' dependents that other men with dependents were afraid to enlist. The action of the Australian censors in withholding news that was common property elsewhere in the Empire gave the wholo population a feeling of distrust towards the authorities, and prevented them getting a proper understanding of the gravity of the war situation. The lenient treatment accorded enemy aliens made many men say that they were not going abroad to fight for a refuge for Germans.

The people were disgusted with the sight of so many fit and eligible _ men in khaki being kept on home service in Australia. Many incorrigible rogues and criminals who had enlisted and then been sent back and peremptorily discharged were going round, posing as returned heroes, and giving tho military service the worst possible reputation. The pensions granted to incapacitated soldiers were not calculated in proportion to their pre-war earnings. Many local bodies, which had been taken control -of by the extreme section of labour, ■were hostile to anything in khaki, and worked against recruiting. A conference on similar lines was also held in Victoria, and it was decided to recommend tho appointment of new kinds of State and local recruiting committees, which would send out to all eligible men, and subsequently "follow up," cards carrying the following questions: (a) Are you willing to enrol for military training with a view to service with the A.I.F. ? (b) If so, state the earliest date on which you can enrol. < Those who know anything of . conditions in Australia can work up no enthusiasm over the chances of success of such a scheme as this.