RECRUITING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 586, 27 December 1915, Page 8

RECRUITING.

MEETING AT RANGIORA.

An open-air recruiting meeting, arranged by the North Canterbury Recruiting Board, was held in Rangiora on Saturday evening, the principal speaker being Mr 0. T. J. Alpers. With the assistance of the Salvation Army Band, a large crowd was attracted to the rneeting.

In opening the meeting, Mr C. I. Jennings, Mayor of Rangiora, said that although little faith seemed t« be placed in meetings as an incentive to recruiting, the experience of Rangiora in regard to the series of meetings held there had been entirely satisfactory, nearly 40 recruits having signed on since the meetings commenced, while other young men were known to be on the point of enlisting. Mr Alpers gn,ve an excellent address, largely on the lines of his previous recruiting speeches. He emphasised the fact that Germany had made perfect organisation for war, and the British Empire must make every possible effort to overcome that organisation. Great Britain had enrolled a volunteer army of 2,000,000 men, and Britons prided themselves on that.fact; but they had no grounds to trust too much to it. Germany had a volunteer army of 2,000,000 men as a kind of side-line to its main army of 5,000,000 conscripts. We must quit all talking to the air. With shoulders braced back and eyes to the front, everyone must be prepared to do his best in this, the greatest crisis in the history of the nation. We must look fairly and honestly in the face the possibility of defeat. We must bring ourselves to realise what we are up against, and then, and not until then, would we be able to fight as we must fight to win through. The speaker hoped that the young fellows were not hanging back because they were afraid. If they lacked courage, let them keep at home. Cowardice was a disease, to be classed amongst disorders of the nerves. If they did not lack courage, were they doing the wrong of hanging back because the other fellow would not do his bit? Mr Alpers went on to urge the young men to come forward. He pointed out that within a few hours they would enter, upon the birthday of the Saviour of the World. Let them remember the supreme sacrifice He made for others, and let it be an iaspiration to self-sacrifice. After the meeting, nine young men registered for enlistment.