The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1915. SOUTH ISLAND'S FAILURE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14742, 22 October 1915, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1915. SOUTH ISLAND'S FAILURE.

So long as the Hon. James Allen persists in turning a deaf car to the generallyaccepted -view that local camps are essential to recruiting, so long will there be a difficulty in securing the requisite quotas. The South Island has not done anything like its share in the matter of reinforcements, and there are no,camps in the South nor any incentive to young men to enlist. It is no use shutting our eyes to obvious facts. The Defence Minister is mainly to blame for the unsatisfactory position that ''xists in the South. As the public now knows, the North Island is expected to provide practically the whole of the men for the Tenth Reinforcements. Auckland’s quota-has been fixed at 1650 men, and Wellington’s at 1650, and as the total force will number 3500 only, it is obvious that the South Island is to be asked to provide 200 men only. A telegram the other day indicated the position to be even worse in the South than was originally supposed, Auckland has sent away 1600 meh for the Ninths, and has already mustered 1000 men for the Tenths. A. Christchurch telegram states that its quota for their Ninths was fixed at 360 men: that the men were due to go into camp on Monday, but that when 'the time arrived they had found 101 men only! In Otago the position was hardly as bad, though had enough, The Otago quota for the Ninths and the two extra battalions was fixed at 380 men. The district succeeded in finding 322. Of that number, Dunedin found 108 and Invercargill 112. Auckland city, for the same force, found over 800 men, and Wellington showed well' to the fore, while Wanganui has contributed more than the Southern critics. It is interesting to observe that out of a little over, 10,500 men for the last three forces raised (Eighth Reinforcements, infantry fop ninth and .extra battalions, and tenth infantry and mounted), the districts have peon called on approximately as follows: Auckland 2695 : Wellington i 4420 Canterbury 2085 Otago 1330 The Wellington military, district has done well in making up the Eighth and Ninth Reinforcements, and Third and ; Fourth Battalions, New Zealand Rifle . Brigade, now in comp at Maymorn. Nearly half the men for the Eighth wert drawn from the Wellington district, while of the Ninth and new battalions the Auckland district contributed over one-third of the total of 6000 men, The point is tii%t- the Southern quotas are out of all proportion, and'are ridiculously small. Yet, £ven so, the districts fail to fill them. The Southland News, commenting on the j>ositiou, suggests that the wonder is not that recruiting lags, but that so many men have been sent to the front, for “Mr Allen is not prepared to go out of his own easy Stride, .nor is JVtr Massey prepared to come South to - find out why Canterbury and Otago are apparently doing, so little as-; • noiii|)r.:'-'d with Wellington ftiu} Auek-

land.” It contends that the greatest difficulty in regard do : ' Recruiting is the, obstinacy of the Minister of Defence', whose patriotism and zeal it does not question, but who "seems to lack all the other essential qualities of a successful Minister of Defence.” The News is convinced that practically every healthy man between the ages of eighteen and sixty could be persuaded to shoulder a rifle in the cause if approached in the tight way; but people are not likely to bo impressed, with the urgency of the call unless Ministers exert themselves a little' more in what they repeatedly admit to be their most important business. It is galling, to say the least of it, in view of the position of our depicted troops in the Dardanelles, and the. urgent need for sending as many men to their help as speedily as possible, to read wh.it the Minister for Defence i ad to say in the course of an interview ,in .Christchurch on Sunday. Christchurch 'ike other centres, realises -that camps would .stimulite recruiting, and on Saturday night a public meeting there, attended by 2000 people, appointed a deputation to urge upon the Minister for Defence the desirability of establishing a local camp. This request he refused, and when asked if ho had any plans in view for making recruiting more attractive, Mr Allen said that proposals were being considered, but the present time was not opportune for bringing them forward. “I don’t want the country to spend all its efforts on recruiting just now, said .the , Minister, emphatically. "To make a tremendous spurt now, and leave nothing in reserve for the coming months, would serve no good purpose. Whatever means are necessary to get men to enlist now must be used, but we must leave something in hand. I want to press that home upon the people; that we do not want to take men away from work until necessary. '/Recruiting is not the’ only object I have to consider. It is necessary for me to conserve the industries of the country as much as* possible, and that must not be lost sight of.” Conserve the, interests of the country, forsooth, but what about the interests of. the men at Gallipoli who are so greatly outnumbered, and whose losses in attack would be much smaller if bigger forces were available for the attacks? It ia preposterous to allow matters to drift any longer. If Mr Allen will not move bim>self, then the -country will have to move him.