WHY NOT ENLIST?

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7709, 18 April 1916, Page 4

WHY NOT ENLIST?

THE PERSONAL CANVASS SYSTEM. Are you prepared to enlist? If not, why not?” are two pertinent questions that have been put to men of military age in Onehunga during the last four weeks, in prosecution of the decision of the local Borough Council to give the personal canvass system a trial (says the Auckland “Star”). The Council was fortunate in securing for the canvass men who have military service to their credit. Colonel T. Jowsey, C.M.G., V.D., an elderly but still enthusiastic soldier, took the Third Contingent to ►South Africa, Chaplain-Captain Wells Smailles was with the forces in Samoa, while the remaining two canvassers, Sapper E. Sutherland and Private E. T. Andrews, were both' through the Gallipoli campaign. TRY IT YOURSELF. The fact that the canvassers have “been” themselves has been of great assistance to them right from the outset. Naturally, in the course of their inquiries they had to observe some tine distinctions of circumstances in handling the people with whom they came in contact. Often it was found that the subject had to be opened up very delicately, and had it not been that the canvasser himself had already suffered for the Empire, he would sometimes scarcely have been allowed to make a dignified exit. The question, “Why don’t you go yourself?” was asked quite frequently, and a few days ago, when going to collect a registration card from a house, the wife showed a disposition to be abusive, and, in a sort of explanation for the fact that the card had not been filled in, said that her husband had told her to ask the canvasser, “Why he did not try it himself. ’ WAITING FOR CONSCRIPTION. While making the canvass opportunity has been taken to check the rolls supplied by the borough authorities. As a result of the investigations it was found that there wore still about 210 single men in the district of military age, 00 married men with no family, and 100 married men with one child. The inquiry also showed that there were about 50 men of military age who did not appear to have filled in the papers as required under the National Register. Since the canvass commenced about 40 men from the district have enlisted, but two of canvassers, in speaking to a “Star” reporter, said that to-day, when practically at the end of the canvass, they were more than ever convinced that the voluntary spirit had almost entirely gone. The married men, who almost invariably gave the canvasser a good reception, stated as their reason for not enlisting that they were not willing to go until certain single men had gone. The single man, who was often inclined to be touchy, Suiid that he was waiting for conscription, or that he had no interest in the war. Everybody seemed to be waiting for conscription. METHOD OF APPROACH. A business man, who was evidently a lit tie upset about something, greeted the canvasser with “Get to out of this, you and your papers!” The canvasser thought it unwise to press the matter further, and filed the business man’s card with the note that he had refused to supply the desired information. This course was followed in similar cases. The system followed by the canvassers was to visit every house, and to inquire if there were any men living there between the ages of 10 and 45. If there were, and the men were at home, they were at once approached, but if they were out the cards were left to be filled in. “This is the pointed question,” said one of the canvassers, indicating a line which read: “What is your reason for not enlisting?” A MIXED RECEPTION. As a rule it was found that no attempt was made to withhold information about the men in the house, but one woman, after giving the canvassers a piece of her mind on the war in general, and the canvassers in particular, declared that she had no men. Tn the course of inquiry it was found that there were actually four men of military age resident in the house. When the canvassers returned she stated that she thought that they had asked if there were men aged 19 or 45, not whether there were any men between those ages. No further comment was made by the canvassers, and the cards were filled in. Tn a number of cases it was found that between the time the cards were left and the canvassers called to collect them the men resident in the houses left for such indefinite destinations as “the country.^’ AN OLD LADY’S SACRIFICE. It often occurred that when the canvasser called he was told that the only boy had gone, or that two had gone, while one remained as breadwinner. Sometimes it was found that the boy had lost his life and there was no one to take his place. An old lady when approached by the canvasesr broke down and sobbed. She said that she had five sons. Three were at the front and the other two in camp getting ready to go with the reinforcements. The canvasser (one of the men from Gallipoli) said that he thought one might have been spared to stay at home, but the old lady with some spirit replied, “They have always been good boys to me, but if they had stayed at home they would have been good for me no longer.”