A NATURAL DUTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24195, 10 February 1942, Page 2

A NATURAL DUTY

Sir, —Many people are perplexed on' the question of military service and - conscientious objection. Having been asked for a statement of my view of the matter, I give it in the full knowledge that CO. was a lawful ground recognised in England and here during * the Great War, and that there-is powerful support for it among some church leadership. I am of the opinion that the matter has nothing whatever' to do, properly speaking, with either conscience or religion. Look right throughout animate Nature, and you will find that birds, monkeys, and all manner of animals have their inherently recognised Jaws of defence, and the sending out of scouts is a regular procedure with many. Their unwritten laws relative fb defence are inexorable, a< indeed they must be. It is a natural compact that the individual must defend the group, the latter being set up for the purpose of defending the individual of any particular association. It is the immutable law of self-preserva-tion, and is mutual. If this is so in the animal world, how much more necessary is it for the welfare of each of us that it should obtain likewise in our complex, delicately-bal-anced, human society 1 It is obviously not in the interests of defence that every man should be in the forces, as some are of very much 1 greater value where they are, in civil production. But I think that our legislation relative to conscientious objection should be entirely repealed, and made retrospectively applicable to all cases so far adjudicated upon on those TMs is said with the balanced appreciation of the facts that some C.O.'s are genuine, and others are deceivers find maudlin sob stuff merchants. Matamata. T. E. McMiLLWi.