CONSCRIPTION IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27201, 19 November 1953, Page 11

CONSCRIPTION IN BRITAIN

Many* Labour M.P.’s Abstain In Vote

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, November 17.

A small section of the Labour Party, strongly against conscription on principle, last night forced a vote in the House of Commons against a Government motion providing for the continuance of compulsory military service for a further five years from next January.

The Government won the. motion by 288 votes to 38, the rest of the Labour Party abstaining.

Mr John McGovern (Labour) opposed conscription, and said he found that soldiers in Australia were training for only four months. He suggested that the Government should ask Commonwealth countries to pool resources of manpower for military purposes so “that some kind of equal period of military training will be undertaken in Australia. Canada and elsewhere.” Mr Alfred Robens, a former Labour Minister, said the Socialists were in difficulty. If they successfully voted against the motion on conscription it would end at the end of the year. This was quite impossible. The international situation would not allow them to do it.

Mr Robens said that if they voted for the motion, they were agreeing with the Government’s having* power of conscription for a further five years, when Labour considered they should ask for it every year. “Therefore we will abstain.” he said. The Liberals also abstained from voting.

The Labour Party will take no action against the 38 backbenchers. They have protection under the party’s “conscience clause.” The House of Commons has debated conscription for the last two days. The Government had had an earlier victory when it defeated a Labour motion that the Government go to Parliament every year to have-its right to conscript upheld.