COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 112, 10 May 1909, Page 5

COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE.

[from our correspondent.-] ••■ WELLINGTON, Saturday. There bids fair to. be a pretty lively, combat between the advocates and op-* ponents oi compulsory military service. A public meeting is being; organised by the former, and last? night a deputation .supporting a compulsory system had a two hours' interview with the Trades and Labour" Council. The exact details of what transpired have not, however, beem made public. On the other hand the* "passive resistance," "let anybody; smack us in the eye" people have begun to take alarm, and already the* bogey of military}s»m is being conjured up. There was a congregation! of the "peace at any price" and "love your, enemies better than your owni eoypitry" believers last night, when Mr o'Regan, Mr Young, a prominent Trades Union secretary, R. Hogg and Eagle, Socialists, and that egregious; person "Comrade" Bowdall, ofc Queen's Statute notoriety, were the! shining lights. A lot of wild rubbislr was talked, and the usual denuncia- • tion of the bloated capitalist was vented. It was finally decided to go "mi force" to the public meeting now being organised by the other side. Whether there will be the same, row as in Christchurch remains to be seen. It is to be hoped at'least that Wellington will not disgrace itself by tearing down the British Flag. Folly of speech; one is accustomed to from' the notoriety-seeking nobodies who pose as Socialists, peace" at any price advocates and so forth, but I "don't think that they will emulate Christchurch in insulting the British Flag. If that little game is played here there is a big chance of some of those who play it leaving the hall with a,1 pair of black eyes or a broken nose. Some kind of compulsory military service is bound to come, and that beforß very Long. The Farmers' "Union, all round the country ai-e making it a plank in their platform, and T am surprised and delighted to notice that many workers are coming round to see that a defenceless country means for them a grave danger of their losing, employment, and of their wives and families wanting bread. The ■> Swiss system, the adoption of which I have more than once advocated by New Zealand, is cheerfully accepted] by the Swiss workers, who are just as inclined to Radicalism and Socialism as their comrades in other European countries. Under the Swiss system the military training, although compulsory, is gradual, and does not involve, as do the German and French* systems, the taking away of a young; man from his home and work for three ■cr four years continuously.