COMPULSORY TRAINTNG.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 37, 12 February 1910, Page 10

COMPULSORY TRAINTNG.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Tho thanks of the community are due to "Practical" and "Resistance" for their letters in opposition to compulsory training, and I hope further steps will be taken, and that indignation meetings will be held throughout the Dominion denouncing this nefarious attempt to infringe our liberty. It is unconstitutional and un-British in the extreme. There seems to have been very little, if any, discussion on the matter in Parliament. In my opinion, a question of such magnitude should have been referred to the country, and not placed on the statute book by Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues with impunity. There is absolutely no necessity for any compulsory training whatever! Give better facilities to volunteers, and encourage straight shooting by forming rifle clubs all over the Dominion! It is a well-known fact that the Tories in England got up war scares before the election for political purposes, and to throw dust in the eyes of the electors. Surely our legislators should have sufficient intelligence not to allow such political dodges to influence them. I have had conversations with a great number of young men on this subject, and in every case they have informed mc that rather than be compelled to train, they would leave the Dominion, and I am sure immigration would be at a standstill, as no Britishers would come to a country where any form of conscription exists. Let us all agitate for freedom, and demonstrate that serfdom will not be tolerated here. —I am, etc, KNOTS.