Reinforcements requested

INVERCARGILL: Interviewed this morning, Sir Joseph Ward said that on his arrival here last night he received a telegram from Mr Massey conveying the one sent by the Prime Minister of England making an appeal for additional reinforcements. Sir Joseph said he was not taken by surprise at the request from Mr Lloyd George in this great Empire emergency. Nothing could emphasise more clearly than the message the urgent necessity for the continued active cooperation of the Oversea dominions with the Mother Land in the hour of need,

when it was absolutely essential to show a determined and united front. It had to be recognised that the effort of the enemy at the present time was colossal, and was being carried out with a reckless disregard of life, with the idea of smashing through the British and Allied front; with the object of Germany placing itself in a position to be able to dictate conditions of peace to suit itself. It was the first time in the history of the British Empire that such an appeal had been made by any English Prime Minister, and it was unthinkable to the men and women of this country that the warning should go unheeded. In providing troops and in the quality of the men sent New Zealand had up to the present done her duty nobly, and he was convinced that the appeal for a still greater effort, owing to the present crisis, would be enthusiastically responded to.