COMPULSION URGED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 63, 14 March 1940, Page 13

COMPULSION URGED

MILITARY SERVICE

GOVERNMENT CRITICISED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

HAMILTON, This Day

Grave concern at the Government's alleged half-hearted method in obtaining men for the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force and its apparent unwillingness to place the country's war effort on a truly national basis, was expressed at a meeting of the Raglan County Council. The majority of the members considered that conscription was inevitable, and its immediate introduction essential in view of the apparent failure of the voluntary

system. . * "■ The following motion was carried, only one councillor dissenting: "That this council is strongly in favour of a system of universal compulsory national service being instituted at the earliest possible moment for the duration of the war. The council is in a position to be able to view the effects of the voluntary system of enlistment, as it affects the farming community, and can definitely state that farm management and primary produce production are already suffering as a result of the present system." The chairman, Mr. H. W. Wilson, in proposing the resolution, advocated a definite policy of "farm or fight." In spite of what had been said to the contrary by some councils he maintained tliat it was the responsibility of local bodies to do all in their power to see that a fair and equitable system of national service was instituted.