BRITAIN'S SAFETY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22999, 29 March 1938, Page 11

BRITAIN'S SAFETY

UNIVERSAL SERVICE DISCUSSION AROUSED COMPULSION ADVOCATED NEED FOE PREPAREDNESS LONDON, March 20 One result of Herr Hitler's coup in Austria is a rapid uwing in Britain toward "some form of compulsory service." While conscription has not yet been urged because of the great opposition to it, there is a growing demand for speeding up the organisation of the country to something approaching a war footing. The Times says: "There will he fresh support for more rapid, effective, and even compulsory organisation of the people of these islands for civilian service of the type demanded by modern dangers, particularly that of panic caused by sudden air raids." Lord Beaverbrook, in an article in the Sunday Express, demands the introduction of some sort of Defence of the Realm Act.

Essentials to Ensure Liberty The Marquess of Lothian, in a letter to the Times, says: "I believe that democracy itself can only recover its health and confidence if the democratic peoples are ready to place universal national service alongside universal individual liberty. The basis of society includes the compulsory service of capital —registration of houses as hospitals, limitation of war profite, etc. —as well as organisation for universal fitness and the allocation of every individual to the service of the community, whether in peace or in emergency." Authoritative circles in close touch with the Government predict conscription for civilian defence purposes; a 25 to 50 per cent, speed-up of the armament programme; and the launching of the greatest recruiting campaign since the early days of the war. Views ol Viscount Bledisloe The former Governor-General of New Zealand, Viscount Bledisloe,. \vho is president of the National Council for Social Service, in a letter to the Times, says: "I agree with the Marquess of Lothian that our much-boasted individual freedom, whether of action, speech or press, is an inadequate basis for effective democracy nowadays.

"So far from stimulating its health and confidence, it is, in some respects, a detriment to both and needs linking consciously and inseparably with some branch of universal national service definitely imposed on every member of the body politic and every kind of usable property. "Nothing coula be more calculated to daunt Britain's enemies—if she has any I —than the enlistment in an organisation of every man and woman in a carefully planned and appropriately allotted national service task, both in'peace and war —in the former as a due preparation to safeguard against the latter." Sir Charles Mallet, biographer and author, also writes to the Times about the necessity of considering some form of universal service if Britain is to fulfil the heavy obligations which a vast and scattered Empire entails.