THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLDS

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 38, 14 August 1917, Page 8

THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLDS

PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS.

There is a growing feeling among members of Parliament, as expressed in conversation in the lobbies, against the calling up for compulsory service of boys of nineteen years. The idea that a boy of nineteen would be nearly twenty when he got to the front does not appeal to most politicians. It is siiggested by certain members —some of whom have had to say good-bye to their own soldier sons —t/hat very few boys outside the backblocks are "hard-bitten" enough at nineteen years of age to stand the strain. They could, it is admitted, stand tho work, and would do it cheerfully, but the strain on the nerves is so great that a young man has to give in far sooner than one of harder experience. One of the most accomplished lobbyists in Parliament told a Post reporter this morning that he thought the Government would be unwise in bringing in such, an amendment of the law, and that if it was brought in only a dozen or so members would vote for it. The idea all the time is that the first section of the Second Reserve shall be called up after the First Division has been exhausted, and that there shall be a solid combing out of those members of the First Division who have been granted exemption. In any case, it is argued, if boys of 19 are to go they should be put through a very severe preliminary medical test, and kept under the closest medical supervision until the time they embark for the front.