IS CONSCRIPTION A CURSE?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7257, 19 November 1901, Page 2

IS CONSCRIPTION A CURSE?

« , — i "THE BURDEN OF MILITARISM" IN GERMANY. ' No. n. (By CHARLES E. HANDS, in the " Daily. Mail.") BRAUNSBERG. Id the evening, the little streets were not so crowded as X should have «xpeoted, and I inquired why. It was, I was told, because all the people upon when* had fallen the terrible oppression of the billeting system— *and: billeting orders had been' mad© upon needy every house in ti» town— preferred to stay at i»m« and tnjoy tb© society of their soldier guests. A man I talked to Ibadh two soddaera billeted upon hiro. I asked* tem whether it was not rather a. hardship to have two. Hardship ! Not a bit of it. It was a pleasure; and one of the two, who was a clever "carpenter, was menidung the rockw% chair for him, whale tine ouber was— all with such wonder-b«aiwtyw-.pUyjng the &ocordion. Ti» people who were am the streets were people who had no soddfers at their homes, people from neighbouring village* ovtsjcb the billeting area, and a. tevr of them were people who had come by train from Heitdgenioeid. Heitigeoheil— tiat jwas tb© plac* where the eddier* fcad! •hsutted' 'the ndghb hefora, and- people from thane bad* oome on ia the hope of spending another hour or two with the m«n who had been Billeted upon them. - j CANNOT PART FROM THEM. In the morning the. regimearta marched away ajain. Not all together lest ttuey should block the road -tov> jwueh and get on one another** way. But they were aU 00l- | lected and reftdy to start as sooqji as it was light. Soldiering is «n «arly-riaing trade. And not only the soldiers, tot everybody else in the littte place, was up and out aa soon as the %ht came. For of the inhabitanta nearly- every man had been a soldier in hiia time, and had never itorgotje© the early-rising tricks of the trade. I do not know what tame school opens in North G«nniany; , but very early apparently, for the school children, were all out— the sturdy little chaps who are gjoxug to be soldiers, to stretdh out thdr uttiie legs in to© endeavour to keep step, etnd the serioua-f&oei} little woman, with two flaxen plaits who are going to have Soldier sweetWrts and soldier husbands m time, to feast their «y«* as long as possible. And lk> see the delight of, tiba little things when, a« with the band playing, ana the handsome Colonel riding ahead, the regiment marched out, they caught sight by/great good fortune of their own special ami par' tdoular soldier— the one who had stayed at their own home and played with them tbe evening before. How they ran. alongside amd caught his hand for a moment, aimd trotted along for a momienb looking up at his faoe-ran honest, simple, round- facet €hait flushed witih pleasure at the greetujg. How tenderly 'he would disengage the little fingers from his own and tell the deark&m to go to school now. I hope that I 'have a self-respecting Briton's proper daore of tnfcranib contempt for aUt foreigners, but, really tibe more I see of the Gerwan eolddJera the more I am in danger of coming to love and admire tbe German people. . IS IT ALL LOSS? I know, of course— fior I have often read it— that this universal militarism crashes | them down to a dead-level of unintelligent obedience to authority. And 1 I anx enough of a political economist"— thouglbj I know nothing of. the science— to see that to take a couple of years out of tbe life of every able-bodied young workman must mean a fearful economic loss. But, in spite of all I know and all I take for granted, I cannot for the life of me, an I look on the fearful machhue at work, help thinking that, quite apart from ell questkms of State ne-^ oessity or advantage, and looking only at the individual 'happiness and wetibeing of the people, there may bo sarmetirding to b« put to the credit side of tbe system. Look at tlhejr splendid 1 , sturdy manhood, j making nothing ° of a twenty .kilomettre j march baf ore breakfas|. ttinie. Perhaps their two years of active training has soon© eort of physical advamtage— • almost as much as going to look at a football match on a Saturday afternoon, evem with the lung-develop-ing exercise of hooting the referee thrown in. They are not picked men, these East Prussian soldiers. They are just caught as happens when the conscription net is thrown. But tihere is not a weakling among thtern. In three regiments, lam told, there was not a man fell out in the long march of the previous morning. They are splendid! to see in tthedr athletic adolescence, amd if the physical braining which their military service implies has anything to do, as doubtless it. has, with their physical excellence, there is certainly aoeaaething for the political economist to write off in con-tra-acoount to the cost. ! FRUITS OF THE SYSTEM. And look at those well e'et-up, erect old men, wfao were soldiers in their time. Physically tihey are none the worse for it, you wou'lct say, by the look of them. And these little sturdy-limbed school children, the children of men who were soldiers in their time; they do not look as if th*v were deficient of stamina/ by reason of the training their fathers had to undergo. The tiny things witih their flaxen.' plaits airad tmwe shining faces— there is something of military •dieciplin© suggested jm.- their cl«4nEn«ss and tb© »©at, trim manntep of tbeilr drese. And look at tbeir national habit of early risinig. I wonder whether it has any oonnection with the compulsory *arly rising during the period of nwiiairy service. Becausle if it has it is an asset Whidhi the political economist ought not to disregard. And' other 'habits acquired and! things learn- : ed during the soldaier seirvicevr-discipKne j and obedieoce, sense of duty, regard for ' authority, experience of men amd places— these all count for something. Of course, I know that uxese are only a small set off against the terribly crushing dost of a compulsory and l universal militarism—any ring of ignorant loafers round a> tub in Hyde Park knows that. Conscription is a thing which would never do for Englishmen; but I am inclined to think that it is an uncommonly good thing for