CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20300, 6 July 1929, Page 16

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

Sir, —I have delayed making expression of my opinions with regard to the attitude of the young men who are being persecuted on account of their conscientious objection to compulsory military service in the hope that the authorities! of the Presbyterian Church, to which they belong, would decide to take up their cause fully. As the Auckland Presbytery has deferred making its full decision in the matter I can no longer keep silence without being accused in my own conscience of moral cowardice. Two objections arise whenever conscientious objection to any law is concerned. (1) Is the objection at all reasonable? and (2) are the persons raising the objection honest and sincere? When these two are satisfactorily answered tho community in which the objectors reside are driven, if it has the desire to do justice, to face two (further questions. (3) Is the law, to which objection is being made, a just law; and (4) is the law being fairly and impartially applied ? In the cases at present under discussion (1) the objectors have on their side a large, and constantly growing, body of opinion throughout the Christian world that war must bo outlawed as a means of settling disputes between nations; (2) the persons concerned are obviously sincero; they are willing to endure whatever punishment may be meted out to them, rather than to violate their consciences; (3) the law itself is thoroughly un-British; it was only under the pressure of sternest necessity that conscription was applied in Great Britain in time of war, and, even then, in face of considerable popular disapproval, and compulsory military service was abolished in Great Britain as soon as tho war ended. It is commonly argued that the training given under the present system in New Zealand is so beneficial, both physically and morally, that all lads should be compelled to undergo such training. A very strong case could be made against this plea. Tho continuance of tho system makes it appear as though New Zealand lads cannot bo trusted to develop themselves voluntarily, and this in a country unrivalled for opportunities of self-development, in gymnasia, in the Scout movement and in sports of all kinds. Compulsory military service is expensive, unnecessary and incapable of justification in such a country as this. (4) Tho law is not being fairly and impartially applied. The magistrate before whom these young men have been tried has been, to say the least, most stern and unfriendly toward the accused. The sentences meted out have been very severe and such as to prejudice tho fulfilment by the young men of their vocation in life. The law says nothing about, the collective conscience of tho religious body to which the persons accused imay belong, yet these young men have been refused tho right to individual conscien tious convictions, while others, belonging to other denominations, have been granted exemption from military service This in spite of the fact that the Auckland Presbytery has upheld tho claim of the young men to the right of individual conscience. Further, the law provides that, in certain circumstances, alternative service may bo prescribed by the Gov-ernor-Gcncrul, but under the law there is no justification for a magistrate taking upon himself the prescription of alternative service, especially at the suggestion of the military authorities, and the young men arc perfectly justified in refusing to accept alternative service under such conditions. G. Gordon Beii*