COMPULSORY TRAINING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15857, 1 September 1913, Page 5

COMPULSORY TRAINING

1 CLERICAL OPPOSITION. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, August 30. (Received Aug. 31, at 5.5 p.m.) Mr Frorkham, in the Nineteenth CenluTy magazine, replies to the Rev. Mr Richards. He admits that the Society of •Friends, the Congregationalists, and the Baptists passed condemnatory resolutions, but their opposition sometimes passed beyond what was usually associated with religious thought, and even became superpolitical and made excursions into naval and military science. He says the Baptists and Congregationalists form 3.84 per cent, of the population, against the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Anglicans 65.89, or with the Catholics 84.45 per cent. While tlje fact of dissenting re&olutio'ns and the passing of supporting motions in the Anglican, Presbyterian,' and Methodist assemblies and synods would lead to' unavoidable confusion, the majority of religious'thought is in favour of the Defence Act.

The Rev. Mr Richards, of the Collins Street Congregational Church, Melbourne, in a letter to the Daily News traversing tho Frodham says a sinister feature of Australian militarism is the association of the press and _ the military authorities, whereby the majority 6f the papers engage in a conspiracy of silence regarding the growing opposition to the Defence Act. Mr Richards censures the baneful influence of ecclesiastical jingoes.