MILITARY TRAINING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17189, 17 June 1919, Page 6

MILITARY TRAINING.

OPPOSITION OF CHURCHES.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— HIESS ASSOCIATION.]

CHRISTCHURCH. Monday.

The Council of Churches to-night passed the following resolutions in opposition to Sir James Allen's scheme for four mouths' continuous training for territorials :—" 1. Tint the Council of Churches appreciates Sir James Allen's earnest dceire to provide for the adequate defence of New Zealand. 2. That the council considers, however, that the conditions of public finance and the cost of living render imperative a very large reduction in defence expenditure, and that the recent victory and the clear understanding of the English-speaking races makes such a reduction both wise and safe. 3. That tho formation of a League of Nations, to which the Empire is formally committed, imposes or us in honour some striking cessation of the preparation for was which recently destroyed the German cystem imposed on tho world. Sir James Allen's suggestion in-, volves not a, cessation, but an expensive acceleration. 4. That in the opinion of this council compulsory segregation of youths in a military camp would entail moral consequences for which no physical improvement could possibly compensate. 5. That it is essential that the whole question be dealt with not by the Parliament now in existence, but by special referendum."