WOMEN'S POLITICAL LEAGUE.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14347, 6 May 1912, Page 10

WOMEN'S POLITICAL LEAGUE.

— « .— ' j .\ DDK ESS OX COM PI" LSOR V TKAiXIXG. At a meeting of tin- Canterbury "Women"* Social and Political League, held on Wednesday tho President. I -Mrs Haslam. and .Mrs Xewell, of I.yi-| tchon. spoko on the defence question, j 'Iho latter gave a stirring and patriotic; address, appealing to iho women of | -Now Zealand to uphold tlio honour <>i \ the English flag, and warning them! that it -would lie not only a oivilist-d | fov thai we might have to defend our ,, country against in the future. hut there, j was always the risk of attack by the yellow races. Mrs Haslam said many authorities wore inclined to doubt whether the! time of training in our scheme was long! enough. A great dealdepended upon j tin* loundation being properly laid i when the cadets were at school. Much \ iron- depended upon the help and cooperation givon by Xew Zealaiider* themselves. Tho women must never, forgot to act in such a manner as to, cause it to be regarded .-us a misfortune j to a m:m, oven a slur upon him, that he had not served in the national I force. It was very cheering to know what j .•I success camps had been this autumn. | and how pleased General Godloy liad j been with them. iSome mischievous j persons had tried for their own ends, j but in vain, to bang false charges j against the recruits, and it was com- j lorting to find that they deserved all j p:ood to be said about them. !>ho j thought when she saw a body of them ; march past, weary hut cheerful, that! their whole expression and attitude! showed them the ix?tter for the out-of-; door life and discipline, and she hoped . iervently that the good influence of that short time mi.tdit be lastingly bone- | iicial. They had heard a {I<xkl deal j iibout the tyranny of the Aft, and the i sin of imprisoning n- young man because i lv« refuswl to kill his neighbour. All! this they knew'Svus just the same fcort | of nonsense a.s tho"talk about conscriji- j tion. Persons were imprisonetl for j contempt of Court. Tliey disobeyed the law of the land in refusing to register, and they disobeyed the Court by j refusing to pay the fine for not j tering. "Now there are persons who have never considered what degradation of mind and soul and body, what j ]K>rpetually hampering daily tortxiro it j would be to- free Englishmen and "• women to bo like Alsace' and Lorraine, at tho mercy of the. foreign, conqueror. For evciry man to be forced to bo a soldier in tho armies of his country : s bitter foe, to Iks obliged to wear tho uniform, of his conquerors when with his regiment or on leave to be ashamed when on loa.ve to show himself to his fellow citizens in that hated garb. This is not an imaginary case. It is what is actually happening at the present time. Germans are imported at tho public expense to take up land in Alsace and in Lorraine on specially favourable terms, and no oust tho native population. Tho Civil Servk-e is filled with Germans. All tho young men are compelled to serve in the German Army, and against their own countrymen if necessary. They have all the burdens' of German citizenship jind none of tho privileges or opportunities. Think what it would be for us. New Zealanders if all our citizens had to pay exorbitant taxes to a foreign poweo', if our young men had to serve in a foreign army, were' obliged to wear its uniform when at home on leave, so that they were ashamed to venture out of doors by daylight all tho time they were at home. Tin's is what is happening at this- moment in those, two beautiful and beloved French Provinces, wrested firom them by the Germans after their victorious-war. There is no reason to think ..we'.'should •bo trea-tod differently by Gwmdriy'or any foreign' power. - We. should Ikt robbed, scorned, trampled- upon, humiliated and' impoverished in every ! possible manner." < •'. j