COMPULSORY TRAINING.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 184, 21 July 1911, Page 7

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

! ATTITUDE OF DUNEDIN PRESBYTERY. ! PEK PRESS ASSOCIATION.! Dunedin. July’ 20. The Dunedin Presbytery’ again addressed itself to-day to the proi blem of the attitude it should assume towards the Government’s , scheme of compulsory military training. A motion calling on the ! people cheerfully to acquiesce in i the demands of the Defence Act : was defeated, and an amendment : simply stating it to be the duty of the people to obey the law of the lam! was similarlv treated.

The motion that was finally passed )>v 10 votes to 7 was one stating that tlm Presbytery did not deem it expedient to express any approval of the (loverniiieiit’s scheme. Five ministers asked for their names to be recorded as dissenting from the decision.

, A PROTEST AGAINST CONSCRIPTION. ! TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —ln view of the numerous objections to register under the compulsory clause of the Defence ; Act, one feels disposed to question i the right of Parliament to pass such an imperious Act mi its own ) iniative without a direct appeal to I the people by the referendum. ' The whole question is one of the | very grav est moment, and should never have been passed into law by the mere votes of the representatives. If it is considered neces- ' sary to obtain the people’s leave I by a referendum to do away with the liquor traffic, assuredly there exists a more compelling reason , for ascetaning their will regarding the enrolment of all the youths in the Dominion in a fighting force, 1 which is—notwithstanding the support given by pseudo patriots—of questionable benefit to the country at large. It is no doubt highly pleasing to the bombastic pride of those who give away Dreadnoughts bought with the people’s money, that- the demonstration should be accompanied by the creation of a Territorial force and the upkeep of a staff of professional military, but sound politieans know that the i revenue would be better spent on railways ami more progressive land settlement. The people who have to struggle hard in these troublous times to keep the larder supplied) and the kiddies clothed have a per- i feet right to say whether they are 1 willing to sacrifice their business I , interests while they pay their cm-I jdoyees to take lessons in the mili- > tary "goose step.’’ Why should! the lads’ aims and inclinations be conimandeered to minister to the J jingoistic enactments of a Parlia-' merit Jed by the greatest bouncer that ever flourished under the I nion Jack in the belief that he has a. special call to support the old Motherland) in her moribund state. It the jingoes who claim : partnership with the British Empire want an army for a parade i review let men be got who are willing to give service. Very many de- ■ light, in soldiering, but there are also many who do not. and thousands abhor the idea of compulsory service, and whose occupations.render them not only averse to . but unlit, for militarism. I cannot admit that the Legislature has any right to exact service from a free man at any rate in times of peace.; It is a species of slavery, inconsistent with a Briton's notions of freedom and intolerable to the , coerced man. A man that does not want to fight- will never make a good fighter. You can stick him as a ninepin and knock him down with the ball but you will never make a soldier of him in the true sense of Ihe word. That may not be, altogether the case as regards the German soldier, but it must be remem- '■ bered the military training of Germany is of a greatly’ different chari acter to that attempted here. There, the compelling power is the “Mailed Fist.” Sir Joseph is not the Kaiser, and the young colonial is not moulded in the. grove that renders him a military automaton.

For an infant country with a population of less than a million to imitate the Prussian Eagle by conscription is the height of folly and illustrates the old adage “monkeys copy their masters.” Nevertheless if the question of compulsory’ service is submitted to a referendum and New Zealand is found willing to adopt it, and to maintain a professional military staff, nothing more remains to be said, but there has been no referendum to ascertain the will of the people anil those who are opposed to the recent Parliamentary enactment should forthwith at the coining election urge upon the candidates their demand for a referendum on a matter of such special and grave import to the country at large. It cannot be right to persecute one section of the people for the desires of the other. The majority of course must rule, but the free man wants to know whether he is in the minority before he receives sentence for gaol as a law-breaker. If war were at hand this matter of compulsory service might find some excuse, but now’ the Yellow Peril is laid, for at least ten years, and the Kaiser is interested in a prospective love affair, and not shouting “Der Vaterland loud enough for us to get scared, we might well put our money to better use than playing soldiers to make 1 ourselves notorious to please the i jingoes. Let us get on with our railways, electric schemes and land settlement, and if there are “a few beans” to spare now and again send them to the dear old Mother over sea to help provide plenty of cruisers for the time when the Declaration of London is signed and we want our trade routes guarded. —I am, etc.,

ANTI-JINGO

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —With reference to the letter on Conscription by "Freedom” in your impression of this date, I desire to express a few thoughts which occur to me. How are the employers to fulfil their orders, etc., when their capable hands are called to drill, parade, etc. Ought not their loss io be made up by Government ? and also that of persons who have sent in orders, and likewise, wages of employees ' What about illness, accidents, or death ! Who meets medical charges? Should not the same consideration be given to parents?—l am, etc., INTERESTED. Julv 20th. 1911.