CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19726, 17 September 1929, Page 13

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

to tub immi c* rE * pMSB Sir,—Though your correspondents, ••Peaceful" and John Booth, have yet to answer the crucial question asked by "Curious," they -have faced mine fairly and squarely; it follows that they might be found on occasions tightmg side by side with the military when called in to do police wort. Ot course we all detest war though we diner in our ways of stopping it. The pacifists moral ladder has As bottom and top rungs hrmly fitted—"bad*' a"d "best being their names—but the intermediate rungs, '-good" and "better, ' are either weak or missing altogether. They are to impatient to climb slowly step by step and trusting to wings are guilty of' the folly of Icarus and are heirs to his fate. The morality which refuses the use of wings and omits no step is surely more fitted tor our faculties and our world. This does not shy at the word force; on the contrary it would employ all the force there is, but would use it. strictly under the direction of conscience. There is little hooe for the cause of peace if the conscientious must be disarmed siroplv because the conscience-less have abused a perfectly good weapon. — Yours, ■ etc... . L. LEWIN. Clifton, Sumner, September 15th, 1929. - TO TH* EPITOB OT TH» PBBBS. Sir,— It would be a pity for your correspondent not to receive a clearcut reply to his definite questions from a pacifist. As a pacifist stands for the immediate and total abolition of the British Army and Navy (as well as of the armed forces of all peoples) he cannot agree to the sending of British forces to Palestine "to protect the Jews." The Balfour Note, in promising the Jews a national home in land already under Arab control, has naturally brought them (the Jews) into danger. Imagine France solemnly promising to assist the whole Polynesian race to find a national home in New Zealand. Would not there be trouble from the white population of New Zealand ? The way to protect the Jews is not to put over on the Arab what you would not like put over on yourself. As for the question: "If they (the pacifists) had been there, would they have protested?" who can say? But that thev should on pacifist principles goes without saying. But here again the protest should be made against the policy that automatically led up to the situation. The mandates are simply veiled annexations, and the British have no more moral right in Palestine than they have in India or in Samoa. Their entry into all these Dlaces was by the sword, and must therefore be maintained by the swords "Preparedness" means that one is prepared to commit fratricide to maintain what one considers one's riehts. Hence those who prefer death to fratricide object to such preparedness. I trust this "direct and personal statement" will satisfy your correspondent. —Yours, etc., N.-M. BELL. September 15th, 1929. TO THE BDITOB Or THZ FB2SS. Sir, —In reference to the letter -of <'Curious-" of the 14th inst., I much regret if I did not make it plain what the attitude of the conscientious objectors is to sending British troops to Palestine.'- If he will re-read my letter he will note that I stated that we condemn military operations under all circumstances (which, of course, includes the case in point) and that we never desire war to be waged in our defence, etc. If that is not plain enough, perhaps this is. Our attitude is that we condemn the sending of troops to Palestine for tire so-called protection of the Jews, and, speaking tor the two students, we would, if there, object to their use on the pretext of our defence. We consider that militarism is wrong in every respect and desire to see it abolished, root and branch, if for no higher reason than for the sake of humanity. "Curious" says: "Every decent person abhors war." Will he tell us why?

In answer to the other,question, r© "preparedness." Our objection is that ■'preparedness" ends in war sooner or later. War is the purpose for which preparations are made. There is no other object in view. Abolish "preparedness" and wars would automatically cease In the main the advocates of war are of two classes: those with a lust for blood and those with a -lust for money. The money-lusters advocate and arrange for the "preparedness" and the blood-lusters provide the "casus belli." I invite "Curious" to watch the investigation into the opera*, tions of a certain Mr Shearer in U.S.A. _ In our boyhood we were rather fond of dog-fights, but the.. dogs did not always want to fight. So we lined them up, facing one another (that was "preparedness") and then gave one of tnem a kick which would always set them going. A true parallel to what the war and preparedness advocates do. The shooting of the Austrian Archduke and his wife was the "kick" in the case of the World War, the Jameson raid the kick that started the Boer War, and so on.—Yours, etc., PEACEFUL. September 16th, 1929. TO THY IMTOB or TKB PttMBB. Sir,—With reference to the incident in the Bible (so often quoted as a justification for war) when Jesus drove the money-changers out of the Temple, may not the explanation be that on that occasion He lost His temper and acted on impulse and not on principle, a. very human thing to doT How do Jj. Lewin, "L.8.8.," and others who believe in evil met with evil, suggest we are ever to get past the war stage on this planet? The only way I can think of is for more and more people to refuse to take part in it. When sufficient people have the courage "to have nothing to do with it war will die a natural death. It is quite obvious that "Hi.li-8.," at least, has never met and talked- to a "conscientious objector. I advise him to read "Armageddon or Calvary, which will give him first-hand knowledge of the attitude of some New Zealand conscientious objectors. Whatever faults conscientious objectors may have, lack of plu.ck is not one of them. It takes infinitely more courage to go against the herd than with it. All thoughtful people like "£.8.8. ' must admit that. This is all I intend to say on the subject.—Tours, etc., g September 16th, 1929.