CONSCRIPTION

WOMEN'S DEPUTATION

PROTESTS

LIVELY PROCEEDINGS

THE PRIME MINISTER'S ORDEAL

Emphatic opposition to compulsory military service was voiced by a large deputation from the Women's Anti-Con-scription League, which waited on the Prime Minister (lit. Hon. W. F. Massey) ihis afternoon. The deputation was introduced by Mr. J. M'Combs, M.P. There were some very lively interludes during the proceedings, especially in the later stages, when the Prime Minister was subjected to a heavy cross-fire of questions from all quarters. Many members of the deputation persisted in speaking at the same time, and Mr. Massey had a. very strenuous time in doing his best to reply to the interrogations. The first speaker \vas Mrs. Donaldson, who said that the Government had failed to prove that there was any necessity for the Bill. As women they protested against compulsory training, because wherever it was in force there must be degradation of women. To take from the people the power to volunteer was to take from the British public the dearest possession they had. In the British nation such a thing as compulsion could not possibly take root, because they had grown up in a spirit of freedom that made willing service the greatest joy of their lives in whatever capacity it was giron. "We protest against bringing children into the world," said Mrs. Donaldson, "if they are to be used in the interests of classes which do not represent the working classes." Mrs. Aitkea said that as mothers they protested against their sons being conscripted if they objected to go to the war. With the men who had volunteered there was no need for conscription. They had done nothing to retard conscription, and they had done nothing to advance it.

The Prime Minister : Have you done nothing to advance recruiting? Mrs. Aitken : I have done nothing to advance it. Wo don't see if we can't go ourselves why wo should make others go.

Mr. Massey : Suppose the Germans should come along ? Mrs. Aitken : "I would fight them myseif. If they interfered with me I would fight them. If they didn't interfere with me, I wouldn't interfere with them." If Prussianism was introduced then the liberty of the people would be. gone for all time. No Government had the right to take, their boys away from them, and for that reason they were going to fight conscription for all they were worth.

INSULT TO BOYS AT THE FRONT.

Mrs. Taylor thought it was a direct insult to the. boys at the front. She had a boy at the front who had undergorte all the hardsliips of Gallipoli, and she held that there was no need for conscription. There were already a large number of men on the National Register who were willing to come forward if they were called upon. Conscription was not wanted to win the war ; it was really to get a tighter grip of the workers ' Mr. Massey : You shouldn't say that, Mrs. Taylor. Mrs. Taylor added that- with the men who were gone, the men who were in camp, and the men who were ready to go, there was no necessity for the Bill. Mrs. Snow, also strongly opposed conscription, although her single son had enlisted, and her married son would go to-morrow if there were proper provision for his wife. Mrs. Beck said the Bill was " too drastic for words." Women could not conscientiously spy on their neighbours, as provided for in the Bill, and there were thousands of young men who had real conscientious objections, and who could not take the life of an animal, much less that of a human being. Mrs. Hulbert also emphatically protested against the Bill. PRIME MINISTER'S REPLY. Replying, the Prime Minister, who was subjected to a good deal of heckling, said he did not look at the position from the same standpoint as the speakers, but he was prepared to admit that their objections were genuine and honest. (Hear, hear.) There seemed to be some misapprehension about the Bill. It appeared to be the impression that the Bill would do away with the right to volunteer, but it did not, It preserved the right to. volunteer, and the compulsory system would only be brought into force in the event of some great crisis arising. Roughly, the object of the Bill was this : The Dominion would be divided into districts, and the number of men of military age would be known to the authorities. Each district would be told the number of men it was required to send to camp each month, and if a sufficient number volunteered there would be no compulsion. If: a sufficient number did not volunteer there would be a ballot, to make up the deficiency. He wasted to remove the impression that directly the Bill came into force compulsion would be necessary. That was not the intention of the Bill. It had been said that the object of the Bill was to get at the workers, but in this country there was no class distinction. A chorus of voices : Oh, Mr. Massey. FUSILADE OF INTERJECTIONS. At this stage interjections became very frequent, and Mr. Massey faced the task of endeavouring to answer half a dozen questions at, once. He went on to say that the Bill made not the slightest distinction between the son of he millionaire (although he did not believe there were many millionaires in this country) and the son of the worker. A voice : What about the squatter ? Mr. Massey ; "The squatter's son will be in exactly the same position as the son of the worker." The Military Boards would consist of the straightest men that.could possibly bo found. A member of the deputation : What about having a woman on the beards? Mr. Massey : " I don't say there wiE not be women on the boards, but I am not committing Cabinet in any way." There was not the slightest possibility of influence being brought on the doctors, because they would be military doctors— Voices: Oh! That's worse still, Mr. Massey ! Matters were getting somewhat mixed, and with a view to throwing more light on the grievances ol the deputation, the feon. J. T. Paul, M.L.C., who attended the proceedings, asked if the Government would not take more of the war profits, so that it couid give more liberal allowances to the men in the firing line. Mr. Massey (to the deputation) : "I will ask you to wait for the Financial Statement to come down, and then if you are not satisfied you can criticise the Government." Ho believed that our men were the best paid, the best fed, and the best treated in the world. Our duty was prefectly clear; it was to assist the Empire to win the war. "God help us if we passed under German rule !"

A voice : We'd be just the same.

Mr. Masssy continued that while European countries were armed ramps we must bo in a state of' preparedness for anything that might happen.

A voice : You will drive a man at the point of the bayonet! Mr. Massey (thumping the table vigorously) : If a man won't go then he must be driven !

"TREMBLING IN THE BALANCE."

Replying to a.n interjection, Mr. Massey said they must realise that civilisation was trembling in the balance at the present moment. He was surprised to hear tliat the method proposed by the Bill was an insult to the boys at the front. The Bill was designed to ensure that sufficient reinforcements would be forwarded monthly to assist our men at the front. The worst.insult that could be inflicted on them would be our failure to send the. reinforcements which ths military experts said were required, ft was for the benefit of the boys now fighting for us that those reinforcements should go regularly and promptly, and that they be properly trained. He had received u lot of correspondence from the men at the front, and in every case they referred to the men who had not volunteered. COST OF LIVING. "Look at the cost of living," interjected a deputationist. "I can't deal with that now," said Mr. Massey. "During a war period the cost of living must go up, and there's no power on God's earth that can keep it down. We have increased the wages of the men in our employment by several hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum. Most of the large employers have done the same thing, and the Arbitration Court has given an increase. There is no use suggesting to the Government that it can keep down the price of commodities, because it cannot keep them down below the cost of production. What wo can do is to prevent a man making undue profits, and we have done it. I have here a list of the cost of the necessaries of life in Australia and New Zealand, and in nearly every case the price is lower in New Zealand than in Australia. You cannot keep prices below the cost of production. UNDER WHICH RULE ? " You have to choose between British rule and German rule," he added. "That is the whole thing. Are you going to have German rule? I am sure you will not. I am sure you are just as patriotic as other people.'" A deputation^ : Not your patriotism. Mr. Massey: I belong to one variety and you belong to another. But there is the question which we all have to consider, which the people of the Empire are called upon to consider. You do not suggest that New Zealand should not do as much in proportion to her population as other parts of the Empire have done? A voice: How about Australia? Mr. Massey said they had to remember that Australia had about half a dozen ships which had to be manned. "We must' win the war," he added. "Life wouldn't bo worth living if we lost."