CONSCRIPTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8445, 10 May 1916, Page 8

CONSCRIPTION

COMMENTS ON FRENCH SYSTEM

In "The Soul of the War," Mr Philip Gibbs thus refers- to conseripdon in France:— The mobilisation of all the manhood of France, from boys of 18 and 19' to men of 40, was a demonstration of national unity and of a great people rising a-s one man in self-defence, which to the Englishman was an astounding and overwhelming phenomenon. Though I knew the meaning of it, and it had no real surprises for me, I could never avoid the sense of wonderment when I met young aristocrats marching in* the ranks as common soldiers j professors, poets, priests, and painters, a-s hairy and dirty a-s the poilus -who had come from the farms

and the meat markets; millionaires and the sons of millionaires, driving automobiles as military chauffeurs, or as orderlies to officers upon whom they united rf\spi.'otful]y. forbidden to sit at cable with them in public places, arid having to '-'keep their place" at all

times. Even now I' am "astonished at a system which makes young merchants abandon their businesses at a.

•moment's notice to serve in the ranks, and great employers of labour go marching with their own labourers, giving only a backward glance at the ruin of their property and their trade. There is something magnificent in this, but all one's admiration of n universal military sea-vice which abolishes all distinction of class and wealth—after all there were not many '■embusques, or privileged exemptes—aeed not blind one to abuses and unnecessary hardships inflicted upon ' large numbers of men. Abuses there have.been in France, as was inevitable, in a system like this, and this general ( call to the colours inflicted an onor-1 hiohs amount of suffering upon men u'ho-would have suffered more willingly, f if it had been to sei*ve France usefully, j But in thousands and hundreds of thousands of cases there was no useful purpose served. General Joffre. had as many men as he could manage along the fighting lines. More would have choked up his lines of communication ■and the wholo machinery of tho wax. But behind the front there warn millions of men in reserve, and behind them vast bodies of men idling in trenches," crowded into barracks, and eating their hearts out for lack of work. They had been forced tb abandon their homes and professions, and yet> during the whole length of the \~aj- they found no higher duty to do. for France than sweep out a barrriekyfird or clean out a."military latrine. It was especially hard upon the reformes —-men of delicate health who ii'.wl boon exempted from their military ,'KTviee in their youth,, but-who now '/ore re-ex a mined by the Conw-il <!<• ■ Revision and found ''good for military ivsn-ica in time of war." ,