MANDATE NEEDED?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 10

MANDATE NEEDED?

CONSCRIPTION ISSUE.

QUESTION OF REFERENDUM.

REPLY BY MR. BARNARD.

(By Telegraph.—Prees Association.)

HASTINGS, Friday.

"The Hon. W. Downie Stewart is either too naive or too subtle for me when he inquires, "If it was unnecessary to consult the people about going to war, why consult on the lesser iesue a*» to how to fight the war,'" said the Hon. W. E. Barnard, M.P., Speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday. "Mr. Forbes and Mr. Savage have both said on different occasions that when the Empire is at war New Zealand ie at war," said Mr. Barnkrd. "Thi® itj part of the price of Empire, but there are varying intensities of warfare, and when it comes to the question of driving the young manhood of the Dominion overseas, I think the people of New Zealand should first give mandate for it. "It is up to those who see nothing but virtue in conscription, to convince the public of the case for it and not try to dragoon them into it. It seems strange that those who get into a frenzy over the powers taken by the Labour Government in dealing with imports and export® are often the very people who hysterically cry to the Government they condemn to conscript for war purposes the flesh and blood of the young. Is not life more than meat and body more than raiment T

"Mr. Downie Stewart is not an hysterical person. If there is one thing wo must all try to do to-day it is to keep our heads cool and our hearts free from unholy paesion and prejudice. I suggested that my personal refusal to decide conscription for the. . women a, 'd children of New Zeah * night be criticised as irrational, but one finds from time to time that one's intuitions are often sounder than the results of an elaborate process of reasoning. "However, my points are that I believe we can get the men voluntarily if we go the right way about it, which we are not doing at the moment. In this connection, Mr. J. A. Lee, who has just been relieved of an official post, could do splendid work indeed. There is no man in the Dominion with better credentials or greater ability for the task.

"My second point is that the ultimate decision on conscription should be the voice of tilie people ascertained through a referendum. I need not traverse Mr. Stewart's deductions about spinsters and bachelor*, because they do not seem to be connected with the argument, and in any case take me further afield than is •required on the eve of Ohrjstmas. My object was to inform my constituents of my views on a vital matter."