RECRUITING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11672, 12 April 1916, Page 4

RECRUITING.

SOME PLAIN SPEAKING. [From Our Cojikespoxdext.] WELLINGTON, April 10. The members of the Wellington War Recruiting Committeo were moved to Bomo, plain speaking at their last meeting by tho resignation of Captain Barclay, tho committee's chief executive officer, who. despite the weight of some seventy odd years, has done splendid work, sinco the beginning of the war in getting men into camp and to the front. Needless to say, the captain's resignation was not accepted, but it was made tho peg on which to hang some very trenchant criticism of tho Government.

Mr Luckie maintained that tho whole trouble in connection with recruiting \wts occasioned by Government mismanagement, I>r Newman contended that tlie authorities had as persistently underrated the good work done by tho J committee as they had obstinately ro- j Ejected: its suggestions, Mr Vail Haast attributed tlie failure of th« voluntary system to the refusal of tlie Government to grant adequate pensions and allowances and to establish receiving camps in the principal centres, ami Captain Barclay himself declared that if the committee could not get the assistance of the Government in practical thiugs. it might as well discontinue 'its efforts to. secure men. A majority of the merribers of tho committee expressed themselves as strongly in favour of conscription, apparently in the belief that the resources of voluntaryism were well-nigh exhausted, and refused to beliove that tho personal canvass urged upon them by the Recrui ting Board would be anything but a hopeless business. One member, the mayor of a suburban borough, objected to the personal canvass because it might lead to the canvassers being asked, why they did not induce, their own sons to volunteer for service,, and another objected to wasting his time on the work while the Government failed to call up men who had already enlisted. A meeting is to be held this evening with a view to getting 250 volunteers to make _ a systematic canvass of the city, but at the moment it looks as if the committee was weary of well-doing and not in a frame of mind to inspire its workers with much real enthusiasm. CONSCRIPTION. No doubt the feeling "tftat conscriptiou in somo form or another is inevitable is growing throughout the N.brth Islan d. Whether this feeling is j ustiiied by the circumstances or whether it is tho -fruit of persistent iteration by certain politicians and certain local bodies it> is hard to say, but in iusrico to the members of the. Recruiting Board, who are not in ;entire agreement on the subject, it must be recognised they all are-making strenuous efforts at the present time to get the best possible results from the voluntary system. Sir Joseph Ward, who makes no sec/ct of his dislike to .conscription and will accept it only as a last resort, still hopes tlie system will/be saved and is continuing his appeal for voluntary service whenever opportunity offers. -Mr Massey and Mr Allen though converts to compulsion, are loyally exerting themselves in the same direction, and it may be'presumed have no active sympathy with the view expressed by the vice-president of> the Farmers' Union that "numbers of first-class men" are holding back because "they see a lot of shirkers and loafers wasting their time at races and such-like." If Major Lusk intends to imply, as many people here assume lie does, that the wage-workers in the towns are not doing tneir part as well as tho farmers are doing theirs the . facts are all against him. The figures show that the workers have contributed far niore thaji their proportionate share to tho Reinforcements and that their contributions are increasing rather than decreasing with tho later drafts. Howj ever, this is not the time to be setting town against country or country against town and if New Zealand is to discharge its obligations to tho Mother Country without conscription the wholo community must put its shoulder io the Avheel with an undivided purpose.