MILITARY TRAINING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19953, 23 May 1928, Page 14

MILITARY TRAINING.

CtJMPULSORY OR VOLUNTARY. DEBATE AT DEVONPORT. Sharply contrasting views on the subject of military training were expressed by speakers at a public debate at Devonport last evening under the auspices of the Presbyterian Literary and Debating Society. The question discussed was that the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act should be repealed. Mr. J. A. Lee, M P., spoke in favour of the motion, and Mr. S. Black, M.A., opposed it. The chairman, the Rev. W. Lawson Marsh, who presided over an attendance of about 150, made the point clear that the purpose of the debate was not to discuss the rightfulness or wrongfulness of war, and at the conclusion of a lengthy meeting he deemed it imprudent to take a vote on the conflicting opinions advanced. The view that compulsory service was anti-British, and was imposed only in New Zealand and Australia, as far as the Empire was concerned, was propounded by Mr. Lee. The war to end Prussianism had ended Prussianism in Prussia, but had left Prussianism enthroned in New Zealand. He trenchantly criticised the expenditure of £8,000,000 involved since the compulsory system was introduced in New Zealand. The syst ;m, he said, did not make good soldiers, and he questioned whether it made good citizens. Compulsory service uprooted boys from their educational courses at the formative period of their lives. Advancing the opposite contention, Mr. Black declared the Act aimed at training men under military discipline, and the value of the Act depended entirely on its interpretation. Compulsory service was necessary, and conferred a benefit both on the community and on the individual. With privileges went duties. The New Zealand system was not militaristic in* the true acceptation bf that term. It did not aim at aggrandisement, and he claimed it had produced no military class. That class had been produced in England, where there was no compulsory service, but a standing army, and power was concentrated in the hands of a few. Military camps did not emphasise the military spirit, the speaker dtvelling particularly on the physical advantages which accrued. The New Zealand system, in brief, was preparedness without aggression .• . A lengthy discussion followed, f after which hearty votes of thanks were accorded the speakers and the chairman A meeting of those in favour of the abolition of compulsory military training will be held under the auspices of the Auckland Women's Branch of the New Zealand Labour Party, in the Town Hall concert chamber on Tuesday evening, May 29. Several speakers will give addresses.