RECRUITING IN IRELAND.
[To rex Elmos or ear ••srsorsros."]
Sin,—Permit me to correct a misapprehension which might arise in the minds of most people from what Mr. Andrew W. Arnold says in his letter in your issue of May 29th as to recruiting in Ireland. Ireland has far above her fair propor- tion in the Regular Army and the Reserve, so naturally there are few left for recruiting. Of those few a number are in America; a further number in England, Scotland, and Wales have enlisted there. Three thousand Irish are said to have enlisted in the Cardiff district, ten thousand round Glasgow, and large numbers at Newcastle and Liverpool. They are the strong, vigorous young men who would be the natural volunteers of the country. A large proportion of those left could not enlist in any country, being the weaker and slacker ones. Because of the emigration of the strong young men, both to America and to work in Scotland, Wales, Liverpool, Tyneside, Ac,, the old and very young left behind form a larger proportion of the population in Ireland than they do of the whole number of Irishmen—hence the proportion of recruits per thousand of the population looks lower than it is. All these things together conceal the real work the Irish are doing. Not only have the Irish regiments borne the brunt over and over again, but in the English regiments there are a great many Irish—either those who were working in England and Scotland and enlisted there, as I said before, or those who have enlisted in English regiments quartered in Ireland—e.g., the Cheshirea have crowds of Irishmen in their ranks. If one glances at the casualty lists one sees it, by the many Irish names. In "the Claddagh " in Galway there are under a hundred houses, and from them there are a hundred and twenty men in the Navy. Where so many have gone there are not
many left to go.—I am, Sir, &c., Fars Pia:.
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