MILITARY SERVICE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 96, 21 April 1909, Page 7

MILITARY SERVICE.

VOLUNTEERING AND COMPUL-

SION

SOME VIEWS.

The question of whether youths and young men shall be compelled to give their services towards the defence of their country is keenly debated among volunteers, and it would seem that the more enthusiastic the volunteer the more pronounced in his opinion that a certain amount of compulsion is necessary. During the recent encampment at Oringi a Post reporter liad many conversations with men on the subject, and in each case the man spoken to was an efficient—on© who has justified his existence as a member of the Defence Force and earned a certificate of proficiency. All were senior men- —men past ithe first exuberance of youth, .and yet not too old to appreciate the opinions of thoise a few years younger. In the first place, it was evident that the volunteer keenly felt not only the ordinary civilian's lack of interest in the work, but still more keenly what sometimes amounted to derision. "Do you know," said one young follow, a particularly smart and enthusiastic volunteer, "even my own people can't understand me going in for this sort of thing, while many of my colleagues and young fellows that I know ask what I mean by worrying about such a game when there is no necessity for it. Some go still further, and find it convenient to look the other way when I am in uniform." It was the same feeling, though differently expressed, that seemed to •rankle in the minds of the men. They had taken up the work of volunteering, not for the love of the uniform, bub because of inherent desire to, if necessary, be able to protect the country, and their 'reward for arduous work was often jeers. "No wonder we are in favour of compulsory training," remarked another man, "when we «cc men quite as big and istrang as we are spending all their spare time doing nothing useful, and deriding us for being fools. And," he added, "there is another view of it. You don't find the Commissioner of Taxes advertising for contributions from those who have money to .spare; he compels them to pay the tax. If there is only one per--.son to be charged at the Supreme Court with the.theffc of a few pounds, the sheriff doesn't invite applications from 7iien who are willing ito serve on the jury; he sends cut a list, and you have to go, and if you don't go you axe fined. Education is compulsory. Lots and lots of tilings are compulsory, and yet, when the defence of the country is concerned, the authorities .say, in effect, ' The defence of the Dominion is a very important matter; in fact, if you have no efficient system of defence you may some day be wiped out. We leave that entirely to yourselves. If you like to be trained for defence purposes wo will train you (always providing your training

doesn't cost too much), but if you don't want to protect yourselves, you will have plenty of time in which to ■stand off and laugh at tire attempts which your fellow citizens are making to protect you, and such like you, if the necessity arises.' "

As a matter of fact, the volunteer appears to have made up his mind that compulsory training on a limited scale—say, young men from 14 to 21 yeans —is bound to come, and to come shortly, and. judging from one man's experience, he considers that everyone concerned will be very much better off than under the present system. He recognises that such a system cannot come into operation all at once, and is prepared to see a trial of it made, say, in connection with the four centres, but he is firmly convinced that it has to come, and that the day of its is not far distant.

There is another subject on which some comment is made in volunteer defence circles. Under compulsory service^ it would, of necessity, happen that employers would be obliged to pay employees for time occupied in training, and to give facilities for the men to attend the various drills. And yet, it was distinctly Stated that in I one particular instance the head of a Government department refused to pay the volunteers from that department for the day or two over and above the holidays involved in their attendance in this and other camps. They remarked: "If the Government does not set a good lead in this respect, how can you expect private employers to do so?"