Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1912. A POLICY OF SCUTTLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 80, 3 April 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1912. A POLICY OF SCUTTLE.

The lull in the political excitement which preceded the appointment of the new Cabinet has left the defence question -without a rival in the public mind for the present. The evidence continues to pour in of the success of the training camps in all parts of the country. The antagonism between compulsion and enthusiasm which was freely prophesied, and is still regarded as a fat-al objection to a compulsory system by a considerable body of English military opinion, has not been realised. Tli© increase of enthusiasm is am even more remarkable feature of the new regime than the increase of numbers. Neither iaside the camps nor out of them did the volunteer movement excite anything like the amount of interest and sympathy that has now rallied to the support of the compulsory scheme. General Godley and hie staff are doing their work admirably; -the young men ar» responding worthily; and the only danger lies in the weakness of the politicians. At the General Election, no hint was given of any euch pßril. Who dreamed at that time that Sir Joseph Ward or any of his colleagues were contemplating any, backsliding with regard to the greatest of their achievements? Witßin the last few weeks, however, the throes of a political crislfl and the need of conciliating influences that would otherwise have been aegligible induced the Ward Government to release, firet one defaulter who was suffering a second term of imprisonment for his defiance of the law, and afterwards several first offenders. A continuance of that policy would speedily reduce the whole soheme to a farce, and a very demoralising farce, for it would put a premium upon lawlessness by making the official guardians of the law the accomplices of the law-breakers. Since then the sentences of some other offenders have been allowed to take their course, and we had roason for hoping that €he new Minister of Defence, whose sympathies with the defence movement are well known, and who, to put the matter on the lowest ground, has not been long enough , in politics to be able to regard official tampering with the law as a commonplace proceeding, would deal more faithfully with the Act than his predecessor. If Mr. Myers had been given a free hand in the matter, we are still satisfied that he would have stood by the law, but the decision of the Cabinet is that the law, as enacted by the Legislature and interpreted by the Courts, is not to be obeyed. Christchurch is again the source of trouble. In Auckland, Wellington, and' other places defaulters have been allowed to serve their terms without hysterical demonstrations on the part of the public and without interference on the part of the Government. But in Christchurch, where the antimilitarist agitation has been strong enough to scare the politicians, the case is different. A series of blunders on the part of the Administration has played right into the hands of the malcontents, some of whom are of the species that acknowledges no obligation to a distasteful law of any kind. First, there was the withdrawal of prosecutions actually pending for failing to register. Then came the release of a recalcitrant defaulter in pursuance of an undertaking or expression of opinion given by the late Premier at a private conference with some personal and political friends of th© offender. A few more convicted defaulters were afterwards, as we have said, released by the Ward Government, without the pretext of their having served a previous term or of the Commandant's concurrence. Now the Mackenzie Government makes the release of other first offenders who have gone ,to gaol in preference to paying their fines one of its first official acts. ,We take it that it is nothing short of their release that has been effected. The decision of the Cabinet, as announced by the Premier, is that the sentences should be commuted. The dictionary meaning of "commute" is to "exchange a punishment for one lees severe." Commutation in this, its proper sense, is all that the Rev. R. S. Gray asked for in his telegram, to the Premier. He approves of compulsory training and ©xpressly stated ithat "he is in favour of the law being enforced until it is constitutionally repealed." But he expressed a very general feeling that it is not desirable to treat these youthful defaulters as ordinary criminals. The answer of the Cabinet is not to find any alternative method of punishment withiu the lavv, but to "commute" the sentence. "Commutation" in the absence of any explanatory words can only mean the release of the culprits and the encouragement of all "others in the like case offending or tempted so to do. A more ignominious policy of scuttle, a more contemptuous defiance of public opinion and of the law which every member of the present Cabinet assisted, at the call of public opinion to pass, could hardly be conceived. The action of the Cabinet will be construed both by the foes and the friends of the new dofence system as nothing shoH of an abject surrender. The extremists in Christchurch will again exult at having successfully defied the law and brought the Government to its knees, nnd the difficulties of enforcement, which hod disappeared almost entirely in other parts of the country, will revive. Under the pressure of compulsion hundreds of ignorant or reluctant young men have gone to camp, caught the contagion of enthusiasm, and are now on the fair way to becoming zealous and efficient soldiers. With the pressure removed the attendance will, of course, fall off, and the discipline of those who remain must inevitably suffer from the> knowledge of all concerned that if it comes to a pinch the ultimate sanction of all discipline

complicity with the open violation of the law. But it may b# said that there are other sanctions besides imprisonment. That is true, and ifc would bo possible to make much of them. The failure to regi&ter involves ipso facto the disfranchisement of the offender and hie disqualification for employment in the Public Service. The fines could also, we presume, be enforced by civil process, and some scheme of military or civil detention 1 could doubtless be devieed that would remove the objections entertained to the stigma of imprisonment and the evil associations of the gaol. Much could be made of all this, if the Government chose to do so, but it does not. The Government could at least cave its face by making the most of the penalties that remain and its determination to enforce them, but it does not. Nob a word of explanation is offered to abate the hopes of, the enemies of the law or the fears of its friends. No semblance of a pretext is held out to disguise the nakedness of the Government's surrender. Ever sine© th© real work of enforcing the law began, the Defence Department has lacked a political head that could speak for his scheme as if h© were proud of it, and provide a rallying point for the public enthusiasm. When Mr. Myers was given the portfolio we believed that such a man had been found, and w© still believe that he will not willingly be the means of transforming enthusiasm into depression and disgust.