TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NEED FOR MEN.
ONE of the best things that have been said on the recruiting problem is to be found in a letter from Mr. J. A. Grant, the Unionist Member for the Egremont Division of Cumberland, which appears in Wednesday's Times. We cannot do better than quote the passage verbatim :— "After three months' opportunity of learning the minds of men on this subject, I can say without doubt that the reason more do not join is that they see no necessity for their doing so. It is not that they shirk or are in any way conscious of shirking, They listen occasionally to an impassioned appeal from a platform as to their duty, or read a flaming poster, but for years they have listened to equally impassioned appeals from partisan political platforms, and seen even more flaming posters on the same hoardings, experience which has to a large extent dulled their credulity. These men form their opinions from the public Press, with the result that they have the conviction that this matter with Germany will be easily and victoriously settled in a very few months. They read of nothing but victories for the Allies, of perpetual Russian advances, of terrific German losses. The true proportions of
this struggle are seldom, if ever, presented to their minds. The natural result is that only a fraction see the necessity of enlisting. Why should I go forward and leave my work when others do not ? ' is the turn of mind of hundreds of thousands of men in this country, and I venture to say that such attitude of mind will not be altered by present methods."
Curiously enough, a recruiting officer of great experience expressed his views to the present writer in almost the same words only the other day. He described how villagers in the South of England told him that they would enlist if they were really wanted to beat the Germans, but that they did not see the use of throw- ing up good jobs in order to massacre boys of sixteen. That was work which they did not care to undertake. When he tried to argue with them they con- temptuously pointed out that they could read as well as he could, and that all the papers said now that the Germans were only sending boys of sixteen against our trenches. We and the Russians were beating the Germans quite easily. Look at the accounts of the heaps of corpses which our men had to climb over to reach the German trenches ! In fact, they regarded recruiting speeches as mere pieces of rhetoric, delivered because the Government happened to have a fancy for increasing the Army at the present moment.
Could a situation be more tragically ridiculous than this ? While this is the tone adopted among those to whom we look to man our regiments, those who know what is really going on, and do not draw their knowledge of the war from picture newspapers or patriotic paragraphs in the halfpenny Press, realize that never in our history has the need for men been greater, and that, instead of the war having become a butchery for the Germans, it is perilously near a butchery for our Army, which has always to struggle against odds of about three to one. It is, of course, perfectly true that our Army has done heroically, and would continue to do heroically, even if it were worn down to nothing; but heroism cannot save it if it is not perpetually being replenished by fresh life-blood and energy from home.
We do not wish in a matter so serious to use the language of exaggeration, or to try to alarm men into joining the colours by sensational statements. We say, however, with a full sense of responsibility, that if the ordinary men of the country could see the letters which are coming home from Flanders from both officers and privates, instead of telling themselves that they are not wanted yet, they would be throwing down their tools in an agony of self-accusation for not having gone long ago to the aid of the gallant men who have been fighting their battles and defending their homes. They would be flocking to the colours. We do not, of course, want to suggest that our line is already so thin that the Germans can break it. Thank Heaven, though it is thin, it is of the best-tempered human steel that the world can provide, or that the world has ever seen, and it will not break yet awhile. It is, however, subjected to the highest possible strain, and unless the nation is forced to look ahead, the breaking-point may be reached in a month or two, and reached perhaps quite suddenly. What will then be the temper of the nation towards its governors ? Will not people say, quite rightly : " Why were we not warned ? Why did you not tell us how great was the need for more men ? Why did you not take us into your confidence and call us to arms in terms
that would admit no denial ? We would have come in a
moment. Instead of that, you allowed, nay, by your restrictions almost forced, the newspapers to feed us with soft words, not realities. You let them tell us only of German defeats and German losses. You had complete
control of the Press and we knew it, and we felt sure, there- fore, when we saw little about our losses and a great deal about those of the enemy, that things must be going well. And now it turns out that all the time we were living in a fool's paradise—living upon our human capital, and not putting by, as it were, against a rainy day. You have treated us like children instead of grown-up men. You gave us plenty of excuses for not doing a disagreeable duty, and you never told us face to face what we ought to do." How will the Government meet the indictment? What reasons can they give for not having taken the nation into their confidence ? They will urge, we suppose, that they were always asking for more men ; but it will be useless to say that. It is no good to ask for more men unless you explain clearly why the men are needed. Now the Government have never given—for fear, we presume, of creating that panic of which they live in such terror—the true reasons why we must have more men. Their control of the Press has turned the war news from criticism into mere eulogy. The general im- pression created is that all is well at the front, and that, though adventurous spirits may still be wanted for the war, there is no need to bother the sober and the serious men with home ties and good berths.
We deal with the football problem elsewhere, but may say here that, much as we condemn the lack of seriousness shown by those who control the football contests, we can hardly wonder at what has taken place. " It is all very well to condemn me," the footballer might exclaim ; " but you never brought home to me the need of volunteering, and let me go on with my football as if there was nothing more important to do in the world. Of course I went on with it, fully confident that the Government would stop the game when necessary. Till then I felt I had a perfect right to go on playing or watching it. ' They will stop us sharp enough as soon as things are really serious,' was my belief and the belief of my friends. And now we find that all the time it was as if we had been watching the kicking about of dead men's skulls !"
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