The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. A MARTYR RELEASED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 8054, 7 March 1912, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. A MARTYR RELEASED

Cabinet has decided to release'from gaol the youth Cooke, who recently received a second sentence of fourteen days for breaking the law- byref using to undergo training for national defence. • '

Th-o reason given by the Prime Minister for the course taken by Cabinet in releasing the youth Cooke is weak and insufficient. The introduction of General Godley’s name into the apology offered for the action of the Government is impolitic. Rightly or wrongly there is a law on the statute book proscribing that youths must take a share in preparation for the defence of' the country. • That law should stand I until it is altered by the men who made it. Shirkers should be punished as by statute provided. If backstairs’ influence can prevail between the law and its administration it should take’ effect before and not after sentence is pronounced. If Cabinet incurs the grave responsibility of releasing/Cooke, thus rendeiing the punitive provisions of the law a nullity, then prosecutions should'cease, or the magistracy should take official cognisance of what has been done, and refuse to punish other offenders. Presumably Parliament knew that any mandatory enactment would produce recalcitrants of the Cooke type and was prepared for the consequences. Otherwise some other steps would have been taken to have the law upheld. Quite probably Parliament, which is so sensitive to pressure from without, will, at its next session, make some attempt to avoid the difficulty by varying the punishment of youths with refractory consciences or striplings whose sense of responsibility encourages them to conclude that no country is good enough fbr them to serve. Our method would be to hail them before a magistrate, register their refusal, and then post them in the “ Gazette ” as defaulters. Individuals of this type are not likely to be of -much use to New Zealand either in peace time or war time. The records show that there are plenty of young men in this country anxious to serye in the Territorials, and. although it is unfair that a small section of skulkers should eat our bread and yet refuse to identify themselves with our citizenship—placing the onus of defence upon the willing shoulders of their manlier compatriots—still there is always the consoling reflection that we are better without them. They could be left to hide behind the skirts of the ambulance nurses in war time, and if the daughters of the islands could manage to conceive any affection, for them after seeing their names posted in the “Gazeztte” they might undertake the task of instilling a little courage and patriotism into them in the privacy of their homes. We could wish that the individuals who insult the cult of Socialism by claiming themselves as its adherents might change their climate, but the difficulty is that there are few countries in which they might find' refuge for their shrinking carcases where military training is not now enforced. One of the few places where compulsory training is not operative is Great Britain. The reserves in that country are chiefly composed of wastrels, down-at-heels, and untrained youths who are carried away by jingoism at war time. The effect of this

policy was only too well- demonstrated in South Africa. Wo should like to be able to point to the fact that under the New Zealand scheme every ablebodied man was a citizen soldier and every able-bodied woman a trained nurse. Such a system would make for national discipline and national efficiency. AVc are working nicely towards that ideal, with the ono stipulation that in the meantime we can count out the Cookes.