MILITARY TRAINING.

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 June 1911, Page 3

MILITARY TRAINING.

SOCIALIST PARTY’S PROTEST. [BV TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL TO THE STAR.] WELLINGTON, This Day. The protest meeting against military training which was organised by the Socialist party did not turn out exactly according to the programme. A leader of the Party proposed ‘ That this meeting of citizens of Wellington enters its strong protest against compulsory military training as hostile to the best interests of the people and dangerous to the working class.” The motion was supported by Mr R. Ross, editor of the Socialist organ, Miss Anderson, sometime a lecturer for the Labour party in Australia, Mr W. T. Young, President of the Trades and Labour Council, and Mr Robert Hogg, organising Secretary of the Socialist party, speaking in that order. The tone of all the speeches was one of hostlity to compulsory training and militarism generally as being one of the engines of oppression used by the enemy of Labour, tho Capitalist. Therefore they objected to everything connected with war. Some of thespeeches made showed that the speakers were frankly disloyal to British rule, claiming that their first duty was to their class in the fight against Capital, whether the strife be civil or international.

When tho motion was put there was a loud chorus of “ayes” and an equally loud chorus of “noes.” The Chairman called for a show of hands but tho loyal faction in the crowd commenced spontaneously to sing “God Save the King.” The old anthem was sung right heartily and those singing it took no further notice of tho faint hooting and howling from the Socialists or of the call for hands for the negative vote. The Chairman was therefore possibly within his rights in declaring the motion carried on the show of hands division but tho meeting was dispersing when he did so.