Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23, 1914. THE NEED FOR MORE MEN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13546, 25 November 1914, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23, 1914. THE NEED FOR MORE MEN.

One of the most interesting of today's cables gives the best account that has yet been supplied of Germany from within. It tells of the active, prepavatidns that are being made for a. prolonged war. Information of this kind should stimulate the British na-tion to greater efforts. Tlie duration of the war will depend very largely upon the strength of the forces 'that we are able to put m the field. For that reason we feel the call is imperative that every Overseas Dominion should do its level best to supplement the efforts of the Homeland by sending forward larger contingents than have already gone. i\ir Massey's reply to a Dunedin deputation yesterday hardly satisfies. After stating that there was no lack of men volunteering for the front, "nobody knew," he added, "how many more would be required. The indications were that tlie Imperial Government would ask the Dominion -to assist m putting m the field m the European spring a force sufficient to bring the war to an end." We have already said that New Zealand should not wait to be asked. If there is a prospect of the Imperial authorities requiring a further expeditionary force m the spring we should be taking much more active steps than are now being shown to have such a force available* and trained. There is little time to be lost if our men are to be made efficient. Names should be taken and enrolments made on a much larger scale than is .nojvv being made for the reinforcement drafts, and the men should he actively drilled either at their home centres or at central camps. Tlie Premier's remark that it is necessary to keep sufficient men here to run the railways and post and telegraphs suggests -that tlrie raising of another contingent would interfere wi-th these services, but we do not believe that this would be the case, as there are plenty of men available outside the Civil Service. "United Empire," the journal of -the Royal Colonial Institute," m its latest issue, strikes a.-. note to emphksise the peed for our giving freely of the best of our maidiood m the endeavor to speedily end the war. A military contributor, reviewing the strength of the British forces, sets out that m sis months time England should be able to place m the field the new army of 500,000 men, territorial units 'for service abroad, including those who have already gone abroad, 60,000 men, the Dominion forces, say, 60,000 trien, and somewhat later, a second new * army of 500,000men;in all a total 0f ''. 1,120,000. "This," he writes, "sounds a big figure to British observers and a note of warning is therefore necessary lest we ■should imagine that when we have resolved to raise and train a million men we have done wonders and can relax ovur efforts, counting the game over before it. is well begun. In the first place a million men ia not a very big figure, judged by the standard of this war ; nor is it a very large number when regarded *as the army, on a war footings of aii Empire of 60,000,000 whi-te men, fighting, m very truth, for "their existence. You have billy to reitteinber that Germany's war footing, with a population ' of 66,000,000, is 4,500,000 and that she i? now -training another million recruits who have not yet been called to the colors. In the second place, the mili tary correspondent of the Times has warned lis, we must avoid the fatal error of thinking that a million men constitute an army; "We must not minimise the time needed for creating such, a force, and nothing but disappointment can ensue if we think' that we can do iii six months what has taken Germany half a cfentui*x't;o effedt." The writer expresses thahfcs for the. heroicdefence of the Belgian people, for -the caseless Watch, of the Royal Navy and our .gallant Army, "which -has added unperißhable glory to its long record of achievement m 'every .quarter of the globe by its splendid deeds at'Mons m the great retirement on . Paris, iii the terrific battle of the Marne, and even greater: sthiggle on the Aisne, where, side hy side with those gay and chivalrous French, whom we have so oftenhonored as foes, they have met the embattled hosts of Germany, and made them- feel "the weight of English, steel and the indomitable strength- of .-British valor and tenacity. Let its-," he writes, "be thankful for all these goott things— which are of the stuff that does not die, but the renown of which shall ring down the avenues of time to cheer and to inspire oui: children's children. But— let us not imagine that, j^le fight is over ,- and that nothing remains for us but to congratulate ourselves and settle the terms of peace. We stand far, very far from that happy" c'onsr:mation, aiid shall reach ityby one road only, and 4 that is "the road of immediate, concentrated and continued effort for the supply of men, trained | men, organised into the battalions and j brigades, divisions and armies. Nothing else will do, mark you, nothing else but sheer trained and organised man^

hood. Money we shall want; oh^ yes. lots of it ! and those munificent gif-ts which "the Oversea Dominions liave, with such .splendid generosity, poured into the lap of the Mother Country — corn and flour arid oil and ooal iinc! cocoa. Oh, we do not forget; these things have gone right home to our hearts, and, m the stress and strain of the long struggle which lies before us, be sure, you men of the Dominions, that many a grateful though, many a heartfelt blessing will go out to yon for this kind, brotherly help. But I repeat it is your men ? your young men, that Britain needs more than any othei' thing on earth, and she needs them now. She wants the bushmen of Australia, the men of the prairies and thf backwoods of ; Canada, the men of the South African veldt, the sturdy Scotsdescended men of hoth Islands of New Zealand— m fact, the Greater British pioneers, from the mines, the back country, the shearing sheds, the cattle ranches — the men of the trails and the camps, the shacks and the guhyahs— and she wants them now ; so that a few months hence, when the need is perhaps greatest (who knows?), they may stand ready m the battle line to prove to Germany the worth of a manhood bred m liberty, nurtured m loyalty, loving justice and fair play, and loathing tyranny, autocracy, blood-guiltiness and all its works. ■