HON. T. MACKENZIE ON CONSCRIPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 304, 20 December 1912, Page 7

HON. T. MACKENZIE ON CONSCRIPTION.

(To the Editor.) Sit, —In connection with a paragraph in a recent issue of your paper, wherein it was stated that the Hon. Thee. Mackenzie, writing on conscription, practically told the Yorkshire Women's Political Association to "mind their own business," may I venture to assert that those women were minding their own business. For everyone who is watching the trend of .vents at Home must be aware that a determined attempt is being made to introduce compulsory service into England, also thai the New Zealand and Australian systenns are being used as a stalking-horse. And as this concerns the -women of the United Kingdom equally with the men, they have every right to voice their opinions on the subject. A na.tion that has been taught from childhood to look upon conscription as an unholy foreign weed that could not by any possibility take root in free British soil cannot be expected to rig_t-about-face all of a sudden—the subject must be handled very delicately and the greatest care taken not to startle the public mind prematurely. Consequently continuous references to Australasian patriotism, as shown by compulsory service, co-me in very useful. It does not say much for civilisation that here in the twentieth century the supply of soldiers is considered as necessary as Lt was in the first, that England -hould be in danger of the introduction of conscription, t-hat fabulous sums are spent on armaments, etc., while people are dying of starvation in every civilised 'country in the world—even here in Auckland there have been two cases lately. The one gleam of hope is that the workers in every country are beginning to rea_e that no matter which side wins in times of war, they and theirs always lose. This feeling is gTowing day by day, and is beginning to make itself felt. When it is fully understood by the great mass of the people, then wars, armaments, conscription and jingoism generally will be banished from the earth.—l am, etcE. GIBSON. Rose Road.