THE PEACE SOCIETY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 203, 26 August 1913, Page 6

THE PEACE SOCIETY.

A. PROTEST AGAINST MILITARISM. At tko annual meeting of the Auckland branch of the International Arbitration and Peace Society, Mr. C. D. McLean was elected president, and ilr. Kgerton Gill secretary. The annual reports otated that ac the outcome of the feeling against the Education Department's requirement that a satisfactory report of military training ehould be a corapuleory condition in the granting of free places in secondary schools, the Association had fathered the formation of the N.Z. Freedom League. It wan formed on March 4, had outgrown the Association in numbera, held weekly meetings, and had printed and circulated over 90,000 handbills and pamphlets ot various descriptions. During the year Mr. and Mrs. VV. H. Alexander, Irom England, had epent considerable time in Auckland organising, an.l were now at work in the Wellington district. A woman's sub-committee had been formed, and had been actively at work. There were 130 membeis on the roll of the branch.

At the meeting an addraw was given by the Rev. W. S. l{oJliiigj> on the defence system of New Zealand, which the speaker condemned as blind and dominant paganism, and a recrudescence iv modem form of the old <Jaesari>>m, based on the belief that the Almighty was on the side of the biggest battalions. In an island far removed from age-long national animosities thla training oi males to become experts in the use of the arts and weapons of scientific human Iwad the utter negation of faith in the; guiding, guarding, and disposing band of a Divine Providence. Politicians trembled for a. nation, not on account of its wickedness or eocial wrong, but because ol it« lack of trained fighters, disregarding the lesson of history that in the long run it was well with the good and ill with the wicked. The speaker condemned the imposition oi duties and penalties by the Act on boya who were voiceless and vcteless to resent the militurium that disregarded lbs rights of fatherhood and majihood. The &y3tem was an attempt to strengthen the bulwarks of the nation by weakening the defences of the borne. Drilling boys at night was harmful to their health. The speaker mentioned the anachronism of militarism without war. and concluded with vvor& on the opportunity ol- N.Z. and Australia to upbuild a nation without bloodshed and slaughter.