AUSTRALIAN FORCE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15130, 26 January 1917, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN FORCE.

NO M&N SENT LAST WEEK. 1 NEED FOR FRANK SPEECH. TOTAL OF 904 IN A WEEK. An appeal to the military authorities to give more information to the i public regarding the recruiting position • was made at a, meetng of the Millions i Club in Sydney on January 12. The . meeting was attended by the State Governor, Sir Gerald Strickland, and the Director General for Recruiting, Mr. Donald Mckinnon, M.L.C. Professor Mclntyre, chairman of the New South Wales Recruiting Committee, declared that the people would have to be taken into the confidence of those who asked their aid. He thought there was much that he knew which the peo- ! pie might also know without the open ! knowledge giving the enemy any advantage. The people wanted more than invocations to sentiment. They wanted facts, and the reasons which brought about certain facts. He was trying to I get the military people to admit the wisdom of this plan. He had told them [ that he would speak of one thing that r day whether they said “Yes” or “No.” They could only shoot him afterwards—' and he did not think they would do that. He intended to tell the people that in the month of December we' had sent no infantry reinforcements from Australia. (A voice: “Shame.) *Yes, there was shame, but what worried him was the thought of what they would do ■ for January and February. Those were . the sort of facts we should fire at the people. SIX UNITS SBfORT. ■ We were six units short and thah : very morning the brigadier-general had rung Him up and said that 600 men ' were wanted urgently in the next few days. He ordered me to get them,” continued Professor Mclntyre, “and I ■ pass the order on to you. Will you see that it is carried out?” A'Member: Will you take a few of us at 50 years of age? (Applause.) Professor Mclntyre; I see no reason why we should not take men who are physically fit, but who are 50 years ) of age. They could go into the back lines, and let the younger men take on the strain of the front-line trenches. . In fact, I am preparing a minute on the subiect, and will shortly submit it ; to the Director-General. (Hear, hear.) L But, in the meantime, let every man , of you join the local committee, and make life unbearable for those committees unless they move rapidly ahead. ; (Laughter and applause.) We started > out by getting 200 men in a week; last ; week we got 436. (Hear, hear.) Each ■ week we will mount up—if you help us. OPERATION OF NEW SCHEME. During the first week of this month the total number of enlistments in Australia was 904. The. contributions by the various States were as follows: —, Queensland, 119; New South Wales, 1 436; Victoria, 150: South An'- f -" r nest Australia, 80; Tasmania, 23. The number of recruits who enlisted each month in New South Wales. : throughout the year ended December 31, ' 1916, were as follows: January, 8753; February, 4240; March, 4320; April, 3218; May, 4187; ■ June, 2275; July, ; 2405; Ahgust, 2780: September, 3195 ; ! October, 3656; November, 2039, Decem- : her 844; total 41,912. ALIENS NATURALISED. ’ POSITION IN AUSTRALIA. — % — , During the last month 12 Germans . were naturalised by the Home and Terhitories Department, says a Melbourne . paper. An officer of the Department ex- [ plained that three were Australian women, who were widows of Germans, ! and two were special cases. The re- , maining seven naturalised were over 60 ’ years of age, and had lived in Australia - for periods ranging from 64 to 42 years. ' One of the special cases was that of a > man, 55 years of age, who had lived in ’ Australia for 35 years. He has a 'son . fighting at the front, who has made his ' will partly in favour of his father, while [ his daughter is married to an Austral- ‘ ian. He was suffering from great hardc ship owing to his not haying been inatu- ! ralised. The other case was that of a ; man 46 years of age, a resident in Aus- ‘ tralia for 35 years. His parents were born in Germahy, but always lived inI the Commonwealth, with the exception ’ of one visit to Germany. The applicant l was born there. He fought for the j Britisn in the i Boer War. Altogether 48 men and nixie women were naturalise [ ed last month. In addition to the Ger--i mans, there were nine Dane?,' nine' . Swedes, eight North Americans, sis Norwegians, four French, two Italians, one Russian Finn, one Russian Pole, one ' Swiss, one Servian, one Peruvian, one [ Austrian (a woman of British birth), i and one Belgium naturalised. Since [ January 1, 1916, certificates of naturali- ! sation to the number of 842 have been > granted by the Department. V