MORE MEN WANTED

Southland Times, Issue 17478, 20 July 1915, Page 6

MORE MEN WANTED

LORD KITCHENER’S DEMAND, DOES IT MEAN CONSCRIPTION ? (From Our Special CoVrespondent). LONDON, May 21. Lord Kitchener in his capacity as a Ministerial spokesman copies the schoolboy who, after writing a long letter, mainly about unessontials, to his father, put in a. postscript—“Am dreadfuly hard up, please telegraph money.” The most important part of what Lord Kitchener had to say in the House of Lords when he spoke on the .subject of the war last Tuesday was conveyed in three or four terse sentences : "I have said I would let the country know when more men would be wanted for the war. The time has come, and I now call for 300,000 recruits to form new armies. Those who are engaged in the production of war: material should not leave their work. It is to ’non who are not performing this duty that 1 appeal, for I am convinced that tile manhood of England still available will loyally respond-by coming forward to lake its share in this groat struggle for a great cause."

Lord Kitchener's call was not unexpected by the thoughtful Englishman, in spite of the assurances forthcoming from certain quarters that the stream of recruits still flowing ralo the army was sufficient for our needs, and that the notion that some form of conscription would be necessary might be dismissed from our minds. Recruiting has already attained to figures which few men could have hoped to see reached under a purely voluntary system. The continuous stream of men enlisting has sufficed not only for the creation of the new armies which Lord Kitchener originally projected, but for the maintenance at full strength both of our forces in the field and of our forces under training. But now that activity at the front “immediately awaits" (as the War Minister tells us) those who have been preparing for it, the time is come to raise new forces en masse, and not by the leisurely process of daily enlistment at the normal rate. IF THE CALL FAILS.

More men are urgently needed, and we can now appreciate, the full force of .Lord Haldane s recent references to the possibility of the voluntary system having to be reconsidered. Of course it is possible that the "00,000 men demanded by the Secretary for War may be forthcoming within the lime Lord Kitchener considers allowable for their raising. In that event the Government will be .justified in nutting off what Englishmen have been taught to regard as the "evil day" of compulsory service. But if Lord Kitchener's clarion call fails to produce an immediate and satisfactory response it is quite certain that there must be a change in what Lord Lansdowne calls' the policy of "more exhortation and appeal.'' The question in the minds of those who, whilst devoutly hoping that Lord Kitchener's appeal may receive an answer to which wc can point with justifiable pride have some doubts upon the matter is whether we ought to wait for results ere paving the way for compulsion in an intelligent manner. It seems to us that whether compulsion is found necessary or not we should he in a position to apply it at any moment on a carefully organised plan. The first thing which should surely be done is to get a census of those who would he liable under a compulsory system, to sort them out into fit and unfit, and to earmark for exemption those men whose labours as civilians arc of such vital importance to the State that, their services as soldiers ought to be dispensed with. We did not need Lord Lansdowne to tell us that—

“a great number of men have not joined the army who might join it, and others who have joined it would probably be better employed in their civilian occupations,"

for we know for a fact that it has been found necessary to bring men back from the fighting line to make good deficiencies discovered in workshops engaged upon work essential to the fighting efficiency of our military and naval forces. Wc are also aware that thousands of able-bodied young fellows of fine physique, and calculated to make splendid fighting materia), are being employed in work connected with the army which could be just as well done by men of inferior physique, by soldiers who are no longer fit for the fighting line, or even by women of no more than average brain power. And knowing these things we wonder why some attempt has not been made to organise the nation's resources in men so that if compulsion should become necessary it can be put into operation without waste of time, and will produce the best results. There is no apparent reason why a preliminary census of the possible "liable:*" should not be taken and a, preliminary winnowing process he undertaken. it would assist tile Government if and when they have to take the plunge foreshadowed by Lord Haldane, and it would give only reasonable warning to the men chiefy concerned to "put their houses in order," and be ready for the emergency that will tear them “willy nilly" from their civilian anchorage ground. These elementary measures of organisation ought to be proceeded with at once, let tlie future hold what it may. GAS REPRISALS.

One other announcement the War Minister had to make, only second in importance to that already mentioned, and, like it, not unexpected. Speaking of the use by the enemy of asphyxiating gases. Lord Kitchener stated that both our own and tiie French Governments had decided to “remove the enormous and unjustifiable disadvantage which must exist for our troops if we take no steps to meet on his own ground the enemy who is responsible for the introduction of this pernicious practice." That is the inexorable logic of a deplorable state of things. Every Briton regards the adoption of this method of warfare with repugnance, hut tlie armies of the Allies must not remain at an "enormous disadvantage" as against the armies of the enemy. This is a military consideration, and we must how to the decision of our military advisers no matter how hard we find it to reconcile ourselves to the adoption of German "frightful” tactics. It is not as if our soldiers were to he called upon to murder non-combatants wholesale, or to go plundering, raping, and torturing among populations like u horde of gin-sodden savages. The use of gas is an act of war, and since it has been turned against us to our detriment we are compelled to enlarge our views and our resources correspondingly. Happily —so it is stated upon seemingly good authority—we can if necessary “gas" our enemies effectively without causing them to suffer the agonising deaths, or inflicting the irreparable lung injuries which the noxious vapours used by the Gormans have inflicted on ouh soldiers. rest Lord Kitchener’s speecli was quietly, confident, it was good news to hear from his lips that we shall very soon be “in a satisfactory position” with regal’d to the supply of high explosive shells, for there have been many very disquieting rumours indeed, afloat concerning the shortage at the front of these vitally essential items in our artillery repertory.