The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 1939. SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 8

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

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 1939. SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS.

For the cause that Lacks assistance, For the wrong that reeds resistance, For the future in ihe distance, And the good that tee can do.

The Government is enlisting a force of

6600 men, for military serviee overseas if necessary. It has already called up men of the Territorial Force to man the coastal detences, and some other and older men for protectivo duties. These men, both

those who are already giving whole-time service and those who will begin to go into camp at the end of this month, constitute h very small proportion of the manhood of New Zealand of military age. The others, the vast majority, continue their ordinary lives, a few liable to bo called for service, but most under no liability at all. In sharp contrast is the condition of a number of the men who have already agreed to serviee ''for the duration" in the Territorial Army, and ot those who have undertaken the more serious commitment of overseas serviee. Some of the former are married men with families and all the - responsibilities associated with the upkeep of a home. They lett their employment on the morning of September 4 and entered the service of the State —and the service of all who are still in civilian life. Very few of them, married or single, are not making a financial sacrifice, in addition to the other sacrifices consequent upon life under military discipline. These latter sacrifices they knew of, and wero and arc willing to make. The degree of their financial sacrifice they did not know, because the rates of military pay and allowances were not announced until some days after their service began.

This inequality of sacrifice as between men in uniform and men who arc not is in one sense diminished, but in another increased, by tho differing attitudes of employers. The Auckland City Council has given a lead to local bodies by undertaking to pay the difference between a man's military and civil pay. All local bodies may not be able to follow the lead; all private employers certainly will not be able to follow it. Apart from the financial condition and prospects, in most cases exceedingly uncertain, of private employers, some have an appreciable proportion of their staffs volunteering for military service; others have none. Again, there is the position of the volunteer who in civil life had no continuous employer. Xo one, under the present lack of system, will compensate him for earnings lost through his patriotic spirit. And there is a general contrast between the soldier, pay limited but hours unlimited, and the bodies of unionised civilians on military contracts, paid at ruling rates, plus overtime rates for work done in excess of eight hours, or work done on Saturdays. In war, as returned soldiers will agree, there can be no "equality of sacrifice," but there can be an effort, much greater and more skilful than was made in 1914-18, to reach as closc as possible to the ideal. It is not impossible to bring about an approximation to equality of financial sacrifice. The soldier does not expect to gain, financially, from service—that is not the spirit in which he volunteers—but, in comparison with the civilian of military age, he should not be allowed to lose.