THE RECRUITING SCHEME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 1407, 1 June 1916, Page 8

THE RECRUITING SCHEME.

CALL' TO CITIZENS' TO HELP,

(Official Message from Recruiting Board.)

We have, received the following teleg.nwn .'rcn the -Right Hon. W. T. Massey, chairman of the Recruiting Board:-, *

WELLINGTON,, this day. Now that the Government; proposals with regard to compulsory service have been announced, tlie Recruiting Boaa-d desires to impress upon local bodies 'and tlie public of New Zealand that the necessary 'amount, of energy is not being put into the national recruiting scheme in somo districts. The position to-day is that, only a' part, of "the" task set. the country three months ago" has been accomplished. In February.' last, in order to "facilitate recruiting, and l at the same time provide a. sound 'basis for the readjust ment of district' quotas, and the introduction of compulsion should 'fliat become necessary, citizens were asked "to undertake the personal, canvass with. a view' to seeing that a report card was sent in. with respect j t.v every' mail of military age in each district.' * This involved a big work, the sending. in of over 2CO,QCO cards, divided ahiortgst 31$ local districts, "but thi. Board -regrets ;to have to' announce "that although 'rndre than. -sufficient time has elapsed in which to complete the undertaking, the results, as. far as they concern the checking and completing of* the rolls, hate been- exr tremely disappointing. To date only ■50.000 cards have been received at. tjlie Board's office, and no more than 5000 are in transit, making a total of 35,000 out of over 200,000. ...,.; It is a remarkable fact, .too, that many qf the local bodies which have 'been- most insistent in urging- compulsory measures have s,:> far' made no effort"* to -do We praii miliary work that is essential to' the equitable enforcement of the principle they advocate., One of tlie main purposes of tlie National Register.. 'was' .to provide a groundwork for the compila? tion of complete and accurate rolls.. It could not be complete itself because (a) it was natural to expect that numbers ;of men would evade the 'Apt by hrit filling in the registration. . forms or : by • giving false information, such as wrong addresses, etc'.'; (b) many men have arrived in and departed Ifrom New Zealand s'nce the taking, of the register; aiid .'(c) many men have changed, their' places of residence, with the result that their addresses given in the National Register are now inonrrect. The National Register rolls for the purpose of reallotini*; district quotas or of applying compuL si on are thus .more or less incomplete. ■Fivery effort has been made in the Military Service Bill to ensure a complete register, but the Board feels that unless it has the assistance of the people with the local knowledge in each-; district',, many loop-holes, of escape will still remain for. the. man who intends i>!. pos . sible to evade his responsibility. ; The only 'way to secure reasonably perfect ro'ls is by the systematic personal canvass urged by the Board three months ago, and the Board submits that those who. should carry it out are the citizens over the military age, working iiv conjunction with the local authority in each district. ' ■ ••■ . •■-..■,

, ,The reasons why the local authorities mid local- residents are called upon to do this work are mainly these.: .(1) Tlie hands df the . Government and' the De-, fence Department are full; (2) local bodie.-l'fcsand local residents", because of their local knowledge, are the only, ones who know "who should and who should not be on the roll. If they do their duty in seeing that every eligible man is enrolled, no man caii escape', his obligations ;. likewise it lies within their power t.*> keep the rofls up-to-date by properly reporting every removal from |«and arrival in their district. It miist he recognised that no .Act of compulsion i will .he fair or equitable unless eye'ry man' of military age is "on thfe roll. The reasons are obvious : the roll is the bijly instrument under which men .can be cal*ed up, and -as compulsion must apply to all men of military age ..alike, it jis wholly unfair that some should be compelled to go because they are on the roll ana others escape' because they ai*e'h|>t. Tlie completion Of the a*oJ's Js* necessary not only to apply compulsion generally,' but in order to levy the quotas fairly as between district and district. -..This is specially so when, as is the. ■'.case,' at: 'present, -, New -Zealand . only . requires drafts of 2350 men every four Weeks- 'to meet commitments. District, quotas cian only be levied fairly.; when they are based on the number of mfch of military age remaining in each district, tlnis giving each district full credit for.' any excess it may have s'eni| in ' before; arid i*e: quiring others 'which have never "'done their share tr> make ' up .their shortages. That is fair, and the ; various districts are vitally interested' in 1 ' seeing' that principle applied.'' '.' "''' ';. . ...;"' '• \ : The . DeLenCe Department, ho\vever, can only give .'effect to. this* if supplied' with proper rolls. . 'Tif> , will be. readily 'understood that tlie^ accurate data-'t^at; has already been Supplied loca-Uties will^be greatly ' deprec'ht'ed 1 for this purpose unless similar work!, is Ij'aken iii hand by all adjoining .qistrictsi-' Until the rolls for the whole of the 'Dominion have , been made as nearly' 'perfect ' as possible.' With this ' inf rirma'tloh v ;to guide it, the Defeim^ Dejiai'tiiient'Svill be in a. position to :f RoO adjust 1 f the quotas that each group will be onij; asked » to supply for future drcl't's a flihnbei*- based on its perfomiance in' the (past ilii'd its existing supply of men ; of military age 1 - At present the Ddfehce De^tn'iien.t; is acting on a roll that shows' 'so' many' men in a district even though they may hot ho there. Unless each district can shW exactly the number of men left in it, the authorities cannot possibly , malce a fair and accurate adjustment. ' : This re^ allotment will be "niade. from month, to month i); necessa.ry, so thai f ull , cr,ejdit can at once -.be' given to each district for the recruits it has sent forward aa its •eligible men vojunteer, and so reduce its number of men "of military age. The quota of that district will, be adjusted from time to time "in ' proportion' lto. tlie' number of men of military age remaining in other districts The districts, therefore, which prefer to continue, to raise their quotas under the v6luht*j.ry principle will 'thus have a strong incentive to do. so.' . Further," provided the local authorities supply, a "proper' roll no grouivwill bo penalised by having' to supply more than; ifc- proper quota; . A further vital point is that men cs 11-' not bo selected according to their respective classes when there i.<r no' Com-"-plete roll available, „ This is of special concern t,;> married men with' dopeh- 1 da-nts, who should therefore see' that hot only are they themselves on the' rqll, but that' every other ma.n ( is. :If men' with, dependants do not' acquaint the rccruitiiitr committees.-. or Defence, authorities With their rcsp6nsibt ! !itid.s, how bah tliey expect the recruiting' committees - and" Dcifenco authorities to know them Thus the more men there are on the rolls, the

less chance is there of aiiv man bel.K called on before his turn. ; c

It citizens over the militarv age are not to he charged with lacking in pal- : riotispi, then they nuistvdi.splav iiimio lenergy than they ai*o '"nian. testing at present,. 'I h?. work. is. urgent,-. -as it is necessary if New Zealand is to fulfil its military obligations- an- injustice ig not to. be.done. With three months gone, .there is a large proportion of the, work yet. left t... d0. Several' districts, though .ate,, are liow getting under wav. but others. have done .little or nothing at all.. It is to these latter', districts that the. Rec'rui{ ing Board eai'nestly appeals, and in. doii'ijr so would, point out that, wherever the personal canvass has been tried few, if, any, difficulties- have been .experienced, and no ■' insults haye been- receiyect;" ,inclpe<l , . the general exiierience has been that men .have.. flocked fo> .the recruiting offices as never bc^ov/e, ensuring .the . success of "the,. voluntary system •.local ! v Tor months to come. Bpt 'in the e y ent> of-' yo'-nn'taryisin. failing, the nation must ba in a position . to immediately apply compulsipii'. and this, cannot, ho fairly done without having' complete rolls, which in- turn .cannot be secured /without carrying out a complete canvass in each local district.;.. , ". . „ „\v, f v ,;]*,iassev. ' ' ' '..Cliairma'iv of Recruiting Board.