LET THE YOUNG MEN GO FIRST

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22795, 22 August 1939, Page 13

LET THE YOUNG MEN GO FIRST

TO THE EDtTOB OT THE CRESS. Sir, —The Mayor of Invercargill is extremely unwise in calling names; there is always a danger, in this method of attack, of a bad recoil, Mr Hanan is reported in your issue of to-day to have said that “any man who opposes compulsory military training is either a fool or a traitor.” Well, he must remember that in this category will be Included the great body of Quakers, the thousands of members of the Peace Pledge Union, No More War Movement, peace societies, war resisters in nearly every European country now undergoing imprisonment for refusal to be conscripted, and other thousands of persons in England, America, South Africa, Australia, and here who are determined to resist at all costs! Incidentally, his Worship will recall the great no-conscription vote in Australia in 1916 and 1917! I venture to • assert that in a show-down the Mayor of Invercargill would be hopelessly defeated in an attempt to bolster up the hateful Continental conscript system.—Yours, etc., . . C. R. N. MACKIE. August 21, 1939. TO THE EDITOR OT THE PRESS. Sir, —I wonder what qualification Mr Hanan, the Mayor of Invercargill (reported in “The Press” to-day), possesses which qualifies him to brand our young men as fools and traitors, who neglect to become soldiers. I have just been reading a Penguin book, entitled “Between Two Wars,” by Vigilantes (K. Zilliacus), with an introduction by Norman Angell, The book lays. bare the machinations of the principals who ran the last war, and-their concern for the peoples and soldiers of the various countries who took part in the war. .If Mr Hanan would read this book he would think twice before he again uses such terms to describe young New Zealanders who do not rush to the ranks to take part in another slaughter.—Yours, etc., H.W.R. ’ August 21, 1939.