CALL FOR MEN

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 106, 29 January 1940, Page 9

CALL FOR MEN

Recruiting Appeal By

Prime Minister

THE DAY AND HOUR OF THE SOLDIER

Principle Of Voluntary Service An appeal to the young men of the country to offer themselves for military service was macle last night bv the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, in the eighth of his Sunday night talks on current New Zealand problems. New Zealand was at war, he said, because there was no honourable alternative. The situation was now really grave and the time had come for men to fight. Ihe Government had not brought forward, and had no wish to bring forward, any measure establishing compulsory service, for the sole reason that it believed in the superior merits of voluntary service. He wished it. to be said that the New Zealand soldier was a volunteer on whom no compulsion was brought to bear but that of his own conscience. He trusted that in the whole New Zealand Division there would be not one conscript. “To a man wbo is already past military age, and has himself never been on active service, no task can be less congenial than that of other men to go to war,” said Mr. Savage. “Yet that is my theme tonight. If, without shirking my duty. I could escape this task, 1 would gladly do so; but. I cannot.

"It is impossible to consider the many problems that await solution in this country without realizing, all the time, that a big 'if stands in front of any plans that we may form. Social security, the development and extension of industries, immigration, increased rural development—these and a score of other tasks will retain importance for us if. and I fear only if, we win the war. On that; our every hope for the future depends. 1 cannot help wondering at times whether everyone in the country realizes this. Critical Centennial Year. “Do the thousands who have been camping in recent weeks in the innumerable beauty spots of this favoured land realize that if we lose the war their latest holiday was perhaps indeed the last, Do the crowds who have been so gaily thronging the racecourses know that if Britain is beaten the good times are over for ever? I would give everything I have to be able to find words that would burn that truth tonight, into the consciousness of every man and woman, of every boy and girl in this Dominion. We are in jeopardy as never before. Our centennial year is the most critical in all our history.

“At times al] of us no doubt succumb to the temptation of thinking that if this or that, had been done hi the past, this war could never have happened. It may be that if different counsels had prevailed at certain critical periods in the last 25 years that would have enabled us to escape the present, calamity. But even if that be so, where does it get ns?—nowhere. We are at war and that is the inescapable fact. Let us forget what might have been, or could have been ; let us think of what is, and shape up all of us to the demands of reality. “Of those demands the most urgent, and insistent is for soldiers. This is the day and the hour for the fighting man. We need him badly, and we need him now. He is to be found in his thousands throughout the country, in all occupations and all places. To all New Zealanders who can play football, cricket, hockey, baseball, tennis, who love swimming, boxing, wrestling and every other strenuous exercise and art I say tonight—and would to God that I didn’t have to say it—the time has now come for men to fight.

“It may be that many men have not offered themselves because they think that if the situation were really grave, Parliament would at once be asked to enact a measure providing for coinpul' sory service. Let me say emphatically that such an idea, if it exists, is twice mistaken. It ignores the fact that the situation is now really grave, and it reveals a complete failure to understand the mind of the Government on this profoundly important matter of State policy. National Defence. “The Government has not brought forward, and has no wish to bring forward, any measure establishing compulsory service, for tlie sole reason that

it believes in the superior merits of voluntary service. In its opinion, to compel men by law to defend their country is, in effect, to deny the existence of one of their strongest and noblest instincts. What man requires to be compelled to protect from injury his mother or bis wife, his sister or his child? 1 have always believed that free men can be safely trusted to offer themselves voluntarily for the defence of those nearest and dearest to them. “I know that there are those who take a different view. 'They say that national defence is the interest of all, ami that all, therefore, should be re quired to share in it. They also deny that a voluntary system can be a fully effective one. deriving, as they believe, its strength from part only of the manpower of the nation. I do not propose to debate this issue. I can see the point of view of those who reject the voluntary principle. 1 can also respect it, though it is not my own. It is my conviction that what is given freely is io be preferred to what is yielded under constraint.

"That, right or wrong, is my way of thinking. I have always believed it to be right. 1 trust that I may never feel myself compelled by events to regard it as no longer tenable. "Now, having said that, may 1 address a remark or two particularly to all lit men between tile ages of 21 and 35 years who have not yet enrolled. To those of them who support the voluntary system I say this: ‘You favour Hie voluntary principle, which the Government also prefers, ami on which it is at presen I basins' its war effort. Both you and the Government believe it to be Hie more excellent way. Now, do you realize that every man of military tige wbo can volunteer and wbo abstains from doing so without good reason, is an argument in favour of the principle of compulsion, which you think Wrong?’ Compulsory Principle. “To those wbo favour the compulsory principle but have not yet enrolled, I would say this: 'You believe that all fit men should be required to defend their country. You do not object to that form of service. On lite contrary, you approve it. At heart, you are really a volunteer, and if you believed that all others were the same you would never think of compulsion. Well, then, I ask you, would it not at this critical moment in our history be belter, in the national interest, to assume that all will do their duty? Do no underestimate the power of your own example. What you do, will inspire others.’

“In stating my preference for the voluntary system I do not forget that in Britain it has recently been replaced by the principle of compttlsqry service. I appreciate Hie significance of tlie British precedent, and I recognize—as we all must —ihftt we who live in New Zealand have no lesser duly or interest than our kinsmen at Home in the mailer of defending the Empire which is ours as much as theirs. Nor is the peril confronting us any less deadly than that winch faces the people of Britain. Subjugation Of All Reason. “In this war against the Germans we are lighting to destroy not a people but something that has taken hold of a people, to their hurt as well as ours. For that reason our victory will be theirs also, for it will free them —this time, we trust, for ever—from the evil thing that has taken possession of theln. And what is that evil thing? So,me will call it godlessness, others materialism. I quarrel with neither answer, but I may ad'd that what I find most repellent in the Nazi make-up is the overbearing of consent, by force, the subjugation of all reason by a discipline sustained by violence that knows no restraints. With all my heart and soul do I pray that, our arms may prevail and cast, this devil out of Germany. But, it would be a terrible thing if in overthrowing Nazism, we ourselves went Nazi by sacrificing liberty on the altar of efficiency. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? "What shall it profit us if we gain victory by destroying freedom ?

“I ask the young men of this country to offer themselves, in their thousands, now, for military - service, anywhere, whether in New Zealand or abroad, for the- place where freedom can best be defended is the place for our fighting men to be. But I want that service to be the service of men who bear willingly the arms that they have, taken up freely.

“I wish it to be said that every New Zealand soldier is a volunteer on whom no compulsion was brought to bear but that of his own conscience. The First Echelon consisted wholly of such men. The Second and Third Echelons will be of the same texture and composition. I trust that in the whole New Zealand Division there may be not one conscript.”