"NO COUNTRY TO DEFEND."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 495, 30 April 1909, Page 5

" NO COUNTRY TO DEFEND."

; ' LABOUR VIEWS. COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING. Compulsory military training was discussed by'the Wellington Trades Council last night on a report that the Auckland Trades Council had endorsed the scheme of the 'National Defence League. •- . c Mr. D.,3l'Laian, M.F., moved in the direction v of the Auckland Council berae asked to defer c the question until tho annual conference, 1 ,Mr.-W. T. Young spoke against compulsory i training. Mr.' Naughton said compulsory haining was i required. (Hear, hear) He was a Volunteer c r for a number of yeais, and nothing galled him ) ' mora than when going to parade to bo jeered t at by idle hoodlums. Compulsory training £ did not mean compulsory service oi conscrip- 1 tion, but every man should be taught how to ( make himself capable of dofending his country, i Delegate: "Ain't got none" i I Mr. l Naughton (with heat): "That's tho sort . of talk we expect to hear at the street corners, i Every n;an has got a country, and the majority I of .the workers can govern the country an} i time they like. It is our country, and we < ought to defei>d it, yet not one man in ten can ' shoot with a riile to ns to hit a haystack." All from 18 to 25 or over, should bo trained to bear arnisCi ' / Mr. P. Brown said tho Auckland Council 6hotild have waited for the guidance iof the conference in so impoitant a matter. Mr.' Dowdall said he had yet to discover what they had to deiend Even nndor a voluntary system, the capitalist could foico the workers to serve in the Army by tho forco of .hunger. i > Mr. Shannon and other delegates favoured compulsory service • 'Mi M'Laren's resolution was. cinied by 20 votes to 13.