The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1938. CONSCRIPTION PLANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1938. CONSCRIPTION PLANS.

For the cause that tacks assistance, 4 For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

English people do not take kindly to the idea of conscription, but in the remarks o£ Sir Thomas Inskip in the House of Commons there was a plain hint that if another war should 'come a comprehensive conscription law will be introduced instantly. It is possible to understand from his statement that conscription plans already have reached an advanced state of preparation, and it is impossible to believe that any Government, faced Avitli ihe emergency, could avoid putting them into oprration. The immediate necessity for them would probably be defensive, rather than offensive, in character. England in 1914 sent its small professional Army across the Channel, and Belgium and France became, and remained, the main battleground. No blood was shed on English soil, except as the result of sea and air raids, which, by modern standards of warfare, were few and ineffectual. Moreover, with the knowledge of the Navy's "sure shield," English people could, and did, feel comparatively secure in their homeland. The war's bitter consequences they saw and felt (and are still feeling), but of the war itself practically nothing. But that feeling of security has long since vanished.

The reports of the fighting in Spain and China have long since made it clear that in modern war virtually the whole population is in the firing line. The consequences of that are ghastly, but they are terribly real. It follows that any Government of a country still at peace would not be doing its duty if it failed to prepare its people for the ordeal of war, even while striving to avert it. Such preparations are, in fact, being made in every country in Europe, as well as in the United Kingdom. In the dictatorship countries, however, the Governments have the advantage of not needing the consent of Parliament and people to any measures proposed. Measures are decreed, and the people obey. In England, the Prime Minister has promised that conscription will not be introduced in peace times. In honouring that promise a risk is being taken, for it is not impossible that while the House of Commons was passing the legislation the bombers of the enemy would be over England. But much can be done in peace time, even in a Parliamentary country, to prepare plans to be put into operation immediately in an emergency, and the official hint that this is being done will have a beneficial effect. Even the best-laid plans could'not quickly produce their designed result if the people were not prepared for them.