The Press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1916. Australia and Compulsion.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15700, 20 September 1916, Page 6

The Press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1916. Australia and Compulsion.

as tho result of the referendum, tho campaign in connexion with which has just begun, Australia decides to adopt compulsory trilitary service, it will be impossiblr for any opponent of tho principle of compulsion in this matter to say that tho nation decided in haste and in darkness. Thero are to be weeks of campaigning, and tho anticonscriptionists will see to it that tho subject is vigorously discussed in all its aspects. Of course, tho discussion will bo entirely idle so far as the merits of compulsion are concerned, for the questiqn is already settled. Should the Empire ever within the lives of those now living beoome engaged in another great war, it is far from impossible that the war will bo fought from tho beginning on a basis of compulsion, not becauso compulsion will be necessary from the beginning, but because it haß special advantages over voluntaryism. The issue for Australia is simple. Either Australia must maintain her supplies of soldiers, or sho need not or ought not. If she must, then compulsion follows as a necessary corollary. - There is so little to bo considere4 beside this point that one wonders what tho controversialists will be able to say in order to keep tho controversy moving. That they mean, however, to say a good deal, and to work strenuously, was revealed when the idea got abroad last week that a sharp censorship would bo applied to the discussion. This idea caused alarm in tho ranks equally of the supporters and the opponents of compulsion, and there was general relief when Mr Hughes said that " by. word "of mouth and through the columns " of the Press every person had the " liberty to speak as lie thought fit, "subject only to the law of the land, "or to not saying anything to dis- " courage voluntary recruiting, any- " thing insulting to our Allies, or "which, would incite any person to "commit a breach of the law of any " State of tho Commonwealth." Any restriction of free speech within narrower limits than this would be harmful in the highest degree. The taking of & in ii«">Jf implies the submission. <sT question to tho free discussion and free judgment of the nation, and if a direct popular judgment is wanted it obviously ought to be one which really does represent tho nation's true opinion. But there is another hardly less important consideration. If discussion were improperly hampered, the to compulsion would be enormously strengthened through tlic people's resentment of the restrictions. As the Sydney Daily "Telegraph" puts it:—'' Every un- " censored . argument will bo sure of '• an audience that "'ill treat it on its

" merits. Every argument, censored, " or suspectcd of having been censored, " would accumulate tho votes that will "be registered in opposition to the " Government's proposals. There is "no man with the most elementary "knowledge of political human nature "who does not know this. Every at- " tempt to bulldoze the public into ac- * oepiing the Giovernmcnt's proposals "by checking its right to hear every " argument, for and against, would " fail." Some of tho opponents of compulsion will complain that tho qualifications with which Mr Hughes announced that freo discussion will be permitted are destructive of freo speech. But if compulsion can bo opposed only by speeches or writings detrimental to voluntary recruiting, damaging to the cause and the unity of the Allies, or lawless in tendency, then clearly the cause of the anti-compulsionists is ono 'that should be rigorously stamped out. Of course, opposition to compulsion does not necessarily involve such offences against tho national welfare, and wo shall be interested to see how the aggressive Labour bodies opposed to compulsion will bear themselves. In Now Zealand, as everybody knows, the faction opposed to compulsory service have never lifted a finger to assist voluntary recruiting, and aro for tho most part hostile to the cause of the Allies. In Australia the movement against compulsion lias been led by men perhaps even more recklessly bitter in their unfriendliness to tho spirit of patriotic endeavour in wbich they recognise an antiseptic to their doctrine of class hatred, disloyalty and lawlessness.