COMPULSORY TRAINING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11629, 10 May 1912, Page 3

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

To the Editor.

gj r -—-From time to time wo see in the papers that young men have been charged before the Magistrate with tailing to register under the Defence Act or attend drills. Now lam an old sailor who has seen rough ways,- aiidJ believe those are the ways that should be adopted with those young men who will not fulfil their responsibilities. Instead of fining them—for the fine usual! v comes out of the pockets of the parents —I would revive the days of the bosun's "daughter," and make astern appeal to these skulkers' physical feerings. I would also propose that those men who have not fulfilled their military duties should be deprived of all the privileges of citizenship. British freedom is a feature of our existence of which we are rightly proud, hut it can. he abused, and those who take advantage of it are the weeds that would choke our manliness and real independence. Mv grandfathers fought, one und'er Nel'son. the other with Wellington, and I wonder what those heroes would think now if rising from their graves they found that it was necessary to force some so-called Britishers to defend their own home. I am an old man of nearly 70, hut I would he proud to be allowed to go' to the front, where, if I could 1 not carry a gun, I could at least cook for and care for those who were serving the Empire.—l am, etc., A FATHER OF ELEVEN.