COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15033, 5 January 1911, Page 8

COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

DANGERS TO MORALS.

SERIOUS CHARGES,

(Fbom Oub Gwh Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, January 4.

A correspondent in the Dominion discusses tlie possible dangers to the moral of tho youth of New Zealand under the operation of a system of compulsory military training such as has been adopted: as the basis of tho defence of the country, and makes grave allegations in respect of certain recent occasions when there have been assembled large numbers of troops. Writing of his visit to the military tournament at Palmevston North he states that on tho railway station and about its neighbourhood he saw a number of young fellows in military uniform visibly the worse for liquor, and eome on hotel premises indulging in intimacy with girls evidently not their sisters, nor tho best of companions for them. If some- of these young feElows were 21 years of age and eligible to be lawfully served with liquor, he would be much surprised. A mother having two respectable sons, ono of -whom had joined the Volunteers, and the other of whom was a cadet, told him that on the occasion of Lord Kit(Clie!iOT'e visit, when! the younger son was going to camp she wished the elder one to go also to look after him, but his reply was "Mother we shall be separated, and my going will do no good., and if you knew what goes on at camp you would not wish me to go. I shall not go any more." The reference was specially to women hanging about the vicinity of the camp and the obscene talk of some of the men. "A minister told, him of another young fellow who went to camp -and who told him that the talk of the men in his tent, principally the married men, nearly all the nights through was vile and disgusting, including things he had never heard or thought of before, and that he was resolved not to go again. He knew of a father who had resolved to migrate with his sons because the law compelled him to expose them to this risk, which he as resolved not to do." Another man sakl "There is going to be some passive resistance over this business. W-hen tho law puts its hands on my boys and says you must go to camp their father is going to say 'You shall not go to camp.'" This father will go to gaol before they shall go to camp. If something is not done, states the writer, not only will there be many parents who will suffer any penalty rather than let their eons go to camp, but the most desirable immigrants will avoid a. country where universal military prescription for boys involves the present moral hazards. A country is not worth defending from material foes at the cost of vanquishing its manhood by moral foes.

A cop.v of tho letter was brouqht under the notice of Major-general A. F. Godley, C.B. (Commandant of the New Zealand Forces) who desires it ito be made known that "It is the steadfast intention of the military authorities to take the necessary steps' to ensure that there is no drinking or immorality within or around military camps, and that lapses in this respect will be most severely dealt with." As regards obscene language, the, remedy for that lies, it is added, in the hands of the men themselves, and in those of the non-commissioned officers in charge. Since obscene language is a matter for discipline, no more need' be eaid. It is punishable in the "British Army, and it should be and will be also in this Dominion's defence forces.

A highly placed officer of the headquarters .staff, when interviewed remarked that with proper regulations such dangers should be minimised. If the young men of New Zealand are prepared to submit to tile strictness of military laws, as_ the soldiers at Home we, such laws being a necessity for the proper regulation of military forces in barracks or in camp, their parents need be under bo apprehension as to the deterioration of their sons morals "he said. " The whole question of morals lies in the hands of the individuals who will form the defence forces of this Dominion, and I maintain that the example of those who neither drink nor use had language, and these should be in the majority, combined with their will to ddscountenancs drinking, swearing, and immorality in others, will have its good effect in a. general levelling up all round. In this I consider that "Viator" and his friends who are of his way of thinking are taking the wrong view. Let their precious sons be the missionaries of national improvement. There is a great task before them and one worthy to be undertaken. If their sons cannot work in camp with other young men without fear of being contaminated, then they are not worth much, and not fit to be trusted away from their homes in any case. One of the great advantages of universal service is the opportunity of levelling up that goes with good example, whioh must always bo stronger than bad example."