THE DUTY OF SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16366, 21 October 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE DUTY OF SERVICE.

AUSTRALIA'S REFERENDUM. BY FRANK MORTON. The position as to military service and the call to citizenship in Australia just now is very peculiar. At an earlier stage in the war the Commonwealth pledged itself to supply a certain number of battalions, and to keep thera adequately reinforced. Apart from the uncertain element of casualties, it became a matter of arithmetic merely. The pledge commits Australia, roughly, to a supply of 16,000 men a month from this onward while tho war lasts. It was intended to keep up this supply under the voluntary system of enlistment. Tho voluntary system failed. It is proved beyond cavil that under the voluntary system a continuing and adequate supply of reinforcements is impossible. This fact was forcing itself on the attention of Australian citizens while the Prime Minister was making those speeches i which (as we are assured( shook England. And while he was thus endorsing Aus- ! tralia's pledge, there was already in Aus- | tralia, a part that virtually counselled repudiation. » | Tentative Provision. Things standing so, Mr. Hughes returned, and Austrilian citizens waited with varying anxiety or curiosity to see what he would do. The matter was of the first , urgency. The cream of Australia's youth and strong manhood was already at the front, relying implicitly on Australia's good faith. If that reliance was to be justified the new drafts had to be provided without delay. Mr. Hughes had power to compel provision under the War Precautions Act, and he had full authority to make tentative provision under the Defence Act by calling up what we call the militia and you call the territorials. But for awhile nothing happened. The Prime, Minister made speeches that were stimulating but cryptic. It became known that he was at varianco with the extremists, and ' intransigeants of the Labour section. He made a statement to Parliament in secret session, but still for a littlo while nothing happened. Referendum Proposals. Then at last we had a definite proposal that was not reassuring. Tho Federal Government, which in Australia controls defence, proposed that a referendum of the citizens should be taken on the general matter of conscription as a measure of emergency. The first effect of this decision was to shelve the real issue for several weeks. The referendum ig to be taken on the 28th current, and there is a possibility that by a majority vote the noes will have it. What then ? First of all there must be a great slump in the repute of Australians as loyalists in tho world outside. In the second place, lacking further action, the Australians at the front will be left without adequate reinforcement or hope of getting it. No man seems as yet to care to say or conjecture what the effect of that position will be. Never in Australia before was an eloquent loyalist Prime Minister in such a deuce of a dilemma. The Labour section, as represented by the Political Labour League, is strongly set against any form of compulsory service. Very influential in the Political Labour League just now is the extremist industrialist junta, chiefly represented by the I.W.W. Australian I.W.W. Alone among political organisations or disorganising forces in Australia, the I.WAV. does not oven pretend loyalty. It is directed and controlled by a number jof men who are in no sense workers. I Some of them have been only a short time jin the Commonwealth. Some are naturalised subjects of alien origin; and among I these there is a good scattering of natural- ! ised Germans. The I.W.W. preaches I sabotage- as its primary doctrine, and openly proclaims that the general strike is its chief selected weapon. Arguments are wasted on the 1.W.W., for it will not listen to argument. It is crabbed, vicious, and unreasoning. Quite a large number , of men prominently associated with its 1 parent body in America arc serving long i sentences for dynamiting and other forms ,of outrage. It declares itself positively i inimical to capitalists of the various deI gress, and all employers of labour, It i clamours incessantly for conscription of ! wealth, and will not admit recognition I of the obvious fart that in Australia most I forms of wealth are being pitilessly conscribed. It does not number among its bosses and adherents one solitary man of wide and established repute. It has not to its credit in any record one isolated act of calculated human benevolence. With a certain solidarity within itself, it is not genuinely in sympathy with any accredited and reputable political or social ' organisation. By its influence it has succeeded in producing the sorriest farce Australian democracy has ever supported or condoned : the expulsion from the official Labour body of Mr. W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, and of Mr. W. A: Holman, the brilliant and enthusiI astic Labour Premier of New South I Wales—and of several less-known men I with these. The men expelled have given I their whole lives and energies to tho pro- ] mulgation of the Labour cause and ideals, i The position, in these circumstances, is | more than amazing— is shattering. j Willing Spirits Gone. I And we must look carefully for the ■ underlying truth" concerning it." Wnv do the Labour bodies of New South Wales and Australia generally permit themselves to bo coerced and be-dovillcd by the 1.W.W., a body abhorred, with which very few Labour men and unionists are in true sympathy ? It i s because the heresy of the I.W.W. on this point chimes with the unconfeased prejudice of tho physically fit workers now remaining in the Commonwealth—or with a largo ' proportion of them. The voluntary sys- ; tern has drained us of the willing spirits, I the stalwart loyalists, the patriotic citi- j zens. There are still in Australia tens of I j thousands of men who would willingly ' serve the King in the fighting-line, tut i they are not of military age or physically ] fit. Of those that are fit, very few are i now willing to serve. The Government I has tardily called up the militia as it has j power to do under the Defence Act, and j the great majority of the men so far examined are making claims for exemp- ! tion. Had we wisely adopted compulsory I service a year or more ago, the recalciI trants would have been called up with the stalwarts, and with this equality of sacri- ! fice many of the difficulties that now beI set us would have been removed. Had ] j Mr. Hughes, with finer courage and truer ■ ■ statesmanship, introduced compulsion by | i other means, there would have been a t ' brief uproar, ending in a steady calm, j ' But now— well, nobody knows what will i I happen now. j The anti-couscriptionists are fighting | I this campaign with a bitter and absolute j 'lack of scruple. Mr. Mutch, a promi- I 1 ment Labour official in Sydney, lately j | stated publicly that the Government of ! I New Zealand" having taken power to I conscribo its citizens, dared not put its power into practice. He drew a sensational picture of New Zealand in revolt. I If yon dare to enrol your men for the I King's service., your streets will run red | with tho blood of civil war— have Mr. | Mutch's opinion for it. And tho bo- | haviour of Mr/ Mutch is merely characI teristic of his kind. This is a fight of ! I projudico and greed against patriotism I . and the impulse of loyal sacrifice. Yon fought the fight more wisely, and you [did well I