STEADY TRICKLING OF RECRUITS.

Notes & Comments.

The anticipations held of brisk enlistments with the colours following the Yuletide holidays are being realised at Ammanford, where during the past few days there has been a steady trickling of men of a fine class, all ready and eager to serve with their comrades in upholding the country's honour and liberty.

This at least shows that the appeals of the last month or so have not fallen of deaf ears, and that the youth of the locality are fairly well alive to their responsibilities and privileges.

The industrial conditions form an important factor in the mental process preceding the determination to enlist, and we have heard it suggested that the lockout at the Tirydail Colliery has had a great deal to do with the influx of men this week.

This may or may not be correct. It is evident that the matter is so finely balanced in the minds of our young men that seemingly trivial circumstances which arise serve to turn the scales one way or the other,

We feel obliged to state that on the whole the youth of the town and the locality have done well; at the same time we feel confident that in the very near future they will do better. Some interesting recruiting figures have been given by Capt. Veale, who is the chief recruiting officer for the area comprising the counties of Carmarthen and Pembroke.

Up to the end of the year there have been close upon 3,700 enlistments for the Regular Army. The largest number, of course, joined in the first few weeks after the outbreak of the war, but since September the number has greatly diminished, for only about 700 were registered from that time on.

Of the total number the industrial districts of Llanelly, Tumble, and Ammanford sent 2,147. In the period of five weeks seventeen men only enlisted at the Ammanford offices, but it appeared that many men in the Amman Valley preferred to join in Glamorgan, and Capt. Veale believes that many men were thus lost to Carmarthenshire.