BILLY HUGHES FOR CONSCRIPTION

Grey River Argus, 28 September 1949, Page 2

BILLY HUGHES FOR CONSCRIPTION

SYDNEY, September 27.

Australia’s oldest member of Parliament, Mr W. M. Hughes, on his eighty-fifth birthday yesterday, urged the need for strengthening the country’s defences. “There was never a time when compulsory military training was more essential”, he said. “All over the world there is fear of war. In every country there is military training in some form, which goes beyond the point at which we stopped. In these countries, every man can be conscripted for any duty, but we, the most vulnerable of all nations, have let our forces sink to a pitiable level. Any future war must inevitably involve the teeming millions of Asia. For Asia’s surplus millions there is no alternative to migration but death, and this country is the most desirable and the most vulnerable”.