QUESTIONS ASKED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 302, 22 December 1939, Page 5

QUESTIONS ASKED.

CONSCRIPTION ISSUE.

MR. BARNARD ANSWERED.

VIEWS OF HON. W. D. STEWART

(By Telegraph.—Prees Association.) DUNEDIN, Thursday.

Pertinent questions were asked to-day by the Hon. W. Downie Stewart in reply to Ti liat he described in an interview as an "astonishing" statement by the Speaker Gf the House of Representatives, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, on the subject of conscription.

"Mr. Barnard says that if it comes to' $ question of conscription the Government should get a mandate by a referendum before adopting it," said Mr. Stewart, ''but on the major issue, as to whether we should go to war, no referen dum was taken, and quite rightly. If it was unnecessary to consult the people, about going to war, why consult them on the lesser issue as to how to fight the war?

Past Views Ignored. "In fact, the Government did not even consult Parliament before agreeing! to help Britain, though in the past it always said that would be imperativa," Mr. Stewart continued. "I was glad they acted promptly, and ignored their past views, but it looks like swallowing a camel and straining a t a gnat to say you will commit New Zealand to waV without a referendum, but you will not conscript without p. referendum?

"Mr. Barnard Daid that, having no eon, he is not prepared to compel other people's sons to go to war. Does this mean that if a referendum on conscription is taken h.ll spinsters and bachelors should be disfranchised? .

"If this rule is to apply in wartime, why should people without children be allowed to compel other people's children to go to school in peacetime? Why should members of Parliament without children vote for laws to compel parents to maintain their children?

Where is the Equality? "Mr. Barnard thinks that if the eocalled voluntary system produces enough recruits the system thereby • justifies itself, but surely this proves the fact that the system is grossly unfair and unjust.

"A question Mr. Barnard should answer," Mr. Stewart concluded, "is this: One family with four sons of fighting age sends all four to -war; another family with four sons of fighting age sends none of them to war. What equality of sacrifice is there in such a case? Yet that ais what actually happens at present \ under the so-called voluntary system.^ \ ♦