MILITARY TRAINING

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22110, 4 June 1937, Page 7

MILITARY TRAINING

TO THE EDITOR OF THB PRESS. Sir, —I see in "The Press" to-day a militarist masduerading under the pseudonym, "Sensible Pacifist." vainly endeavouring to uphold the discredited cause of militarism. Your correspondent knows nothing about the subject; otherwise he would not write as he does. First, it is true that the physique, manliness, etc.. etc., in Europe are better than ever before; however, this is not due to militarism, but to other causes. When men in Europe used to serve in the army not 18 months as to-day, but six and seven years, the physique was inferior to the present time. In Switzerland, where military service lasted only 15 days each year, the physique, manliness, order, and morality were the best in the whole of Europe. The betterment of the physique of the population in Europe is entirely due to the wholesale introduction of sport in its many aspects. The hours of labour have been reduced, slums are fast disappearing, education is becoming better, food is of a higher quality. These are the .only reasons for the better state of Europe. . . Against this, militarism has proved a dire curse everywhere. There are no more undisciplined, unruly, dangerous creatures than soldiers when they feel themselves free from the iron hand of their superiors. I lived in Paris during the last international exhibition, when the number of the population in that city had increased by about half a million through the influx of men and wamen from all nations and speaking all languages, and the order in Paris in these hectic days was exemplary. I happened to be in a locality where great military manoeuvres were taking place, and tne robberies, immoralities, pitched battles, and drunkards' brawls were of hourly occurrence, in spite of all the precautionary measures taken by the authorities. Barracks always depreciate the residential value of any locality. No family will trust its daughters without escort after dark in a barracks district. Such a state of things is the result of a so-called disciplined military training that Mr Boyle and Sensible Pacifist" wish to introduce in New ZeaI am not a pacifist; I am a fighter, and I even intend to fight in my grave, but I refuse to become a murderer and a butcher at the dictate of any corrupt politician. My first duty is to wage a deadly war against my greatest enemy—my lower self—to fight injustice, corruption, exploitation and cruelty. Nature has given me a mind ano reason to use in this fight. Had Nature wished me to be a murderer, she would have supplied me with deadly jaws, claws, horns, a rhinoceros hide, or even an elephants trunk. In the meantime I will fight one of the greatest calamities which has ever afflicted the human family, and Its name is—militarism. I will' not rest until it has disappeared from our lovely earth.— Yours, etc.. tjmbERTO COLONNA. June 3. 1937.