Mr A. Washer, after remarking that the National Reserve intended to call a meeting on the subject early this week, said that men must be found to fill up the gaps in the Expeditionary Force.
It was now a question of who was to take it in hand. The defence authorities had done their best, but had not met with much success.
He said it was a fact that men had to be obtained from the North Island to make up the Otago quotas. That was a slur on Otago in general and Dunedin in particular.
The defence authorities would take any number of recruits, but how and where were they to be got? The country was looking to Dunedin for a lead.
There was plenty of money in hand for the purpose but the real trouble was to raise the required men.
He was satisfied that a large number of young men were shirking their duty, and the seriousness of the position would have to be brought home to them.
He would like to see a committee set up to go into the matter.
Lieutenant-colonel Stoneham explained that the National Reserve had been waiting for some responsible organisation to take charge of the recruiting of our young men.
There were numbers of young men from 21 years of age up to 35 fit to go to the front.
They had sent a number under the age of 21, and he thought it was a disgrace to New Zealand that they had to call on such young men when there were thousands of the age fit to go. Some effort must be made to get these to come forward for service.
They did not want to bring in compulsion, but if these men did not come forward something would have to be done to compel them to do so.
The Mayor replied that those present indicated a desire on their part to do what they could to help the Empire. But he trusted that the deputation had not been carried away by anonymous letter writers in the press.
Dunedin had done as much as any other city in the dominion in her efforts to get recruits.
This was not a civic matter at all. So far the Defence Department had asked the mayors of the various cities to do anything they wished them to do, and so far as he knew the citizens throughout New Zealand had come forward, and had nobly fulfilled any request made by the Defence Department.
The mayors had not yet been asked by the Defence Department to do anything in this relation.
First of all, the Government should state what they were prepared to do for the dependants of those who might be maimed or killed.
If they were only prepared to adhere to the terms of the Defence Act they were not doing sufficient for the dependants.
He felt sure that if the Government would say that by every steamer leaving New Zealand ports for England they would send so many men, and paid the passage money, they would soon get all the recruits they required.
The Mayor said distinctly that he was not opposed to recruiting.
Mr Washer moved that the executives of the National Reserve and the Patriotic Committee meet the deputation on Monday afternoon and discuss the position, in order that something definite might be done.
Mr A. S. Adams, in seconding, said if a proper public meeting was arranged there would be such a response that would astonish the people.
The motion was carried. - ODT, 23.11.1914.
