LABOR AND DEFENCE

Evening Star, Issue 15223, 30 June 1913, Page 2

LABOR AND DEFENCE

THE CITIZENS' FORCE. UNITY CONGRESS PROPOSALS. Much curiosity has been manifested in th« proposals thai arc to be submitted to the Labor Unity Confess, meeting at Wellington this 'week, in respect to defence. Out so far there has been published only a brief outline of the proposals to be placed before the del-agates. As will be seen from the full text appended, they contain some very extraordinary provisions : - Clans* 10 of the general platform reads as follows: "National Defence and International P^ace.—lna measures for Defence—- " 1. The prceeni inadequate- Defence Art shall hi repealed,' and national defenco shall be provided by a citizen army on a voluntary basis, with regular standard wage* for all esmocj, provided that th-s troops shall never be used, under any circumstances, in industrial disputes. "2. Officers shall be elected by their commands, and all claw distinctions i."tween officers and men shall be abolished. Gaudy and extravagant uniforms and accoutrement* shall be forbidden. All uniforms and accoutrements shall be p»o----vided by and shall belong to the Stat?, and shall not be worn by officers cr men except on duty. "3. Arms, ammunition, uniforms, and all other individual equipment* for military service «hall be supplied on application to all able-bodied citizen* of the nation, the same to be always in the individual possession and care of the citizens themselves, and special opportunities shall be provided for voluntary rifle range shooting, and with special rewards giv*n for standard efficiency as riflemen. •'National Measures in Behalf of Peace—"4. Arbitration of all international disputes. "S. An eariy agreement between th-; Powers for reduction of military and naval expenditures, with the ultimate difarmaof the nations always in view. "'.lmmediate peace measures on the part of organised Labor. "6. Support shall be given to the effort to obtain an international mutual understanding on the part of all industrial and political organisations of Labor, to the end oi raising the jjint power of ibe workers in all countries to make an end of war by a universal refusal of (lift workers to provide for transportation or support for armies engaged in the international destruction of the products of Labor and of the lives of the workers. "7. The study of the new international language, Esperanto, and tlw distribution of Labor literature in that language shall be especially promoted, because the greatest difficulty in securing complete international mutual, understandings on tb« part of all the .people is the confusion of the many tongues of the modern nations, and the resulting ignorance and suspicion with which modern nations regard eacn other. "8. An effort shall Le made to secure a mutual international understanding letween the industrial and political organisations of the workers of Australasia, and all the countries bordering on the Pacific, including those of North and South America, and especially with the industrial and political movements of Labor in China and Japan, to the end cf so arranging that the labor of no one of th»e countries shall be used to lower th? standard of living in any other country. This especially _ shall be secured by preventing emigration to the more favored countries, and by preventing the employment of sweated labor in any of tiwe countries. "9. The joint support of the workers in all countries must lw pledged to the workers of each country in thc;r struggles with the exploiters of "their own country, for largpr opportunities, for higher standards of living, for wider liberties, and this programme shall be supported, to the end that the political enslavement or industrial oppression of any of the .workers in any of the islands of the Pacific, or in any of the. countries bordering on thes« waters, may bo made impossible. In thus securing industrial justice in all these countries there will be an end of th** danger of wa.r betwe.en any of them, and especially betmeeii the yellow and white races. In this way will* be avoided what, otherwise threatens to become the most disastrous warfare in the his tor,' of mankind."