CONSCRIPTS OR VOLUNTEERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16234, 20 May 1916, Page 6

CONSCRIPTS OR VOLUNTEERS.

In speaking yesterday on the Address-in-Reply Sir Joseph Ward very aptly pointed out that some of the members who were talking j against conscription had not raised ; one finger in support of voluntary- ' ism. This is entirely true. The j recruiting campaign of the past year ' has been energetically carried on by ! men of whom the great majority i believe that compulsory service is , fair, equitable and necessary. Minis- | ters whose views on domestic ques--1 tions differ as widely as do those of Mr. Massey and Mr. McNab have ] appealed in all places and times to ' the patriotism of eligible men. In j Dunedin as in Auckland local authoI rities and representative citizens } have spared no pains to make volunI taryism a success, although very few have not realised that compulsion I must come. The press of the Doj minion has loyally supported the I Government and the military authorities have made common cause with I civilians in the endeavour to maintain the established system of recruiting. As a result nearly 60,000 eligible men have voluntarily come forward, and the reinforcements have gone forward with unbroken regularity. It is manifest that such a magnificent effort cannot be sustained, if for no other reason than that we have been draining the community of those whose presence made volunteering popular. We have still many thousands of men with domestic responsibilities who are ready and prepared to enlist if the country calls them, but the majority of these very naturally demand that eligible men with no reI sponsibility or with little responsij bility should be made to do their I duty. Those members who now seek to delay conscription have systematically hampered voluntaryism in a variety of ways— ceasei less fault-finding, by captious criticism, by unpatriotic fostering of j class antagonism. It is noticeable ; that they all come from districts i where recruiting has been slack. They all profess to agree that the war must be fought out' to a victorious end, but they do nothing to help win the war . and everything they can to lose it. There is no school of political thought in New Zealand which lacks loyal and patriotic representatives, so that there will be no excuse for any electorate which fails in the future to relegate doubtful representatives to ..the obscurity they deserve.