ACTION OF THE RAGLAN COUNTY COUNCIL

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 134, 3 December 1915, Page 4

ACTION OF THE RAGLAN COUNTY COUNCIL

TO THE EDITOR^ Sir,—After lauding the action of the Raglan County Council in dismissing its single employees, and after calling on [ other bodies to follow the council's exj ample, the editorial of. the Evening Pest finishes with the following sentence: "It is only by the exercise of every form of moral pressure allowed by the law that _ the volntary system can he m;ide to yield the desired results, and everybody wonld like to win through on voluntary lines if it can possibly, be done." There are two words in the sentence to which, sir. I would like to draw your attention: they are '"voluntary" and "pressure." Evidently, then, the writer of the editorial either believes that there is such a thing as a forced volunteer or does not admit tfcat economic pressure comes under the category of force. If we followed out the first alternative the words pressure" and "voluntary" would be interchangeable terms and not as their meaning implies, mutually exclusive. There would then be such enormities as a free slave, a moral voluptuary, a conscript volunteer. A contradiction in terms would then be impassible. Following out the other alternative we see that the writer says that economic pressure does not mean force, but such pressure still leaves the victim his full right of choice. If we examine the facts we will see that the only choice a man has who is thus displaced is to starve or recruit. You give him a choice which leaves him no choice—in reality he has 'Hobson's choice," which is no choice at all.

&> we arrive at this position : Economic pressure as applied by the Raglan County Council gives a man no alternative—it forces him to recruit. A "forced volunteer" is a contradiction in terms. We have, therefore, a system of compulsion—conscription through economic pressure. Now, economic pressure can only be put into operation against those who, when force is exerted, will be with- I out the opportunity or the power of pro- I curing sustenance. This means that the poor must go but the rich may stay I at home. The employer may compel his employee to serve, and he himself may lean back, having done his duty. Compulsion by this method, therefore, leaves ■the way open for a multitude of abuses. It gives one class the power of life and death over another clause. It is harsh, unfair, and altogether unsatisfactory. JNeither the members of the Raglan County Council nor any similar body, nor any employer or group of employers "have any right whatever to force the members o*f their stair into the arms of the reeniitin" sergeant. That right belongs to the Go"----vernment alone. No council or employer should even be permitted—much less '■•»- joined—to arrogate to themselves the Parliament's sacred power. If it Is necessary to speak, then let Parliament speak.—l am, etc., x !•:. H. THOMAS. 30th November. 1915. [We have to thank our correspondent tor ap ingenious and eogem nrsament in i Savour of conscription and shall luok for

his support of that issue if the Government is driven to the conclusion that it is a necessity. ""A 'forced volunteer' is," he declares "a contradiction in terms. We have therefore a system of compulsion—conscription through economic pressure." The system to which our correspondent refers is that whicTi the Raglan County Council is introducing by its elimination of single men from its service. Yet exactly the same argument could have been applied, and often was applied, to enlistment for the British Army in the days before the war. Hunger was in those days the most powerful recruiting sergeant 'in the land, as was conclusively proved by the decline of recruiting when good times made other employment plentiful. It was reaUy "conscription by economic pressure" upon which the British Army relied in those days, though in name its basis was of the voluntary character which Mr. Thomas appears to regard as the ideal thing. Compulsory volunteering is really not quite the novelty or the paradox that lie imagines. As to the new .phase which he sees this system threatening to assume if the Raglan County Council's policy is generally adopted, he says: "Neither the.members of the Raglan County Council nor any similar body, nor any employer or group of employers, have any right whatever to forcu thb members of their staff into the arms of the recruiting 6ergeant. That right belongs to Government alone." The complete legal power of compulsion is no doubt properly reserved for the Legislature^ but to say this- does not mean that either individuals or organisation* are under any obligation to ignore the needs of the Empire in the bestowal of their favours or to put the patriot and the shirker on exactly the same footing, or to allow the conditions of employment ih their own business to prejudice the country's chance of getting the men that are needed for the supreme task. Our correspondent talks loftily of thb "sacred power" of Parliament, and we trust that he will treat the power as> sacred if the occasion arises for its exercise. Meanwhile he should recognise that we are all, both individually and in various collective capacities, less compre hensive than that of the State, the trustees of a power which, though inferior m degree, is equally sacred with that of the State itself. Subject to the commands of the State—or, in other words, within the limits of the law—have we not all a right and even a duty so to exercise that power that it may help the State in its life-and-death struggle.]