RECRUITING.
[To THE EDITOR OP TER "SPECTATOR."} SIR,—The Spectator is doing splendid work in aid of recruit- ing, and it is greatly to be hoped that it will go on "rubbing in" the necessity of raising, not only Lord Kitchener's first hundred thousand, but also the remaining four hundred thousand. That this necessity is not by any means generally understood must have been noticed by all who are specially interesting themselves in the matter. In a paragraph on the second page of last week's issue yost tell us of the difficulties of the Recruiting Staff, largely depleted as it has been by removals to the Expeditionary Force. Even if the present number of recruiting offices cannot be increased all at once, there are several ways in which members of Local Emergency Committees can help the recognized_Recruiting Staff at such
offices as already exist. There is no need for Local Com- mittees to start recruiting offices of their own or do anything that would in the least interfere with the work of the present staff. They can facilitate the movement of would-be recruits to the offices at which the men can be examined and attested.
I have recently been told that in one district of Surrey— a county which appears to give the lead to other counties in matters connected with national defence—a simple measure has been adopted which has greatly helped recruiting. Men waiting their turn outside a recruiting office have been sup- plied with a good plain meal, so that they are neither kept hungry nor obliged to go to a distance from the office to get necessary food. Could not Local Committees do something in the same way ? Men who do not live near a recruiting office ought, it is submitted, to be provided with means of convey- ance to the recruiting office without cost to themselves. I have had an interview with the manager of an important tramway line, and he has assured me that his company would readily issue low-priced tickets for use by men wishing to recruit, which tickets would take them to a point close to a recruiting office. Could not a Local Committee obtain a few of these tickets in advance and have them ready to hand to men desiring to recruit ?
There appears to be no want of readiness to join the fighting forces of the Crown, but there is a curious and rather widely prevalent idea that many men are not required just yet. Representatives of very different classes have said to me : " We shall have to go by and by." That they ought to go at once did not appear to have occurred to them. The fact is the country needs rousing ; not to fight so much as to get ready immediately to fight when the time for that comes. Cannot you with your great literary power compose a brief and stirring appeal to the manhood of the country, an appeal that could be printed in plain type and be posted up in every street and in every village P—I am, Sir, &c., C. A. G. B.
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