Compulsory Military Service

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 225, 21 June 1939, Page 11

Compulsory Military Service

Sir, —New Zealanders being a race of sportsmen need no one to remind them that in tiny form of athletics the untrained man has no chance whatever against the man who is trained, other things being equal. It ought, therefore, to be easy to convince those whose minds are open to reason that just as in sport, so in war, the untrained or partly-trained men are at a terrible disadvantage against troop* , “trained to concert pitch”; and that if. the vouth of this country continues to turn a deaf ear to Mr. Savage's appeal •' for recruits for the territorials, and ; the older men for enrolment in the ~ National Reserve, sooner or later this calamity will overtake us. What this training “to concert pitch’ really means to the Germans the tollowing few facts will serve to show: At the age of 10 a boy joins the Hitler Youth in which he remains till 18. Then follows six months in the Labour Service Corps, where, as in the Hi.lev Youth, he also goes through a certain . amount of military training and is then drafted for two years’ service in the army; after -which he is enrolled in the. Storm Troops where he remains and is periodically trained till the age of 50 when he retires but is still liable for service in time of war. In addition to his military training he is all the while being carefully instructed on his obligation to live “for the idea of the Nationalist-Socialist movement and to serve in its spirit.” What are w e doing compared to such thorough-going regimentation of a whole nation’s youth and manhood! A few thousand volunteers and vague talk of America and Russia coming to our aid if hard pressed. Those who are putting their trust in those countries are doomed to disappointment. Our workers insist on compulsory unionism in order to protect their rights, and this sometimes causes considerable hardship to others, why not then consent to an extension of the principle of compulsion to military service, even though it may unavoidably cause some hardship to a few individuals, in order to defend their country which gives them their rights? lam, etc., N.Z.E.F., 23/1694. Waipawa, H.B. June 19.