COMPULSORY SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16537, 10 November 1915, Page 10

COMPULSORY SERVICE

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I feel somewhat gratified that my previous letter to you on the subject of conscription evoked such a hearty approval from your numerous correspondents, so far as I am aware not a single letter being against it. To my mind this proves that the country is ripo for 6uch a movement, and I am at a. lose to understand why our Prime Minister and Minister of Defence endeavour to clog the wheels of public opinion. Volunteering is very nice for a parlour game, but when the honour and virtue of our mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts arc at stake we require to get out into the open air with the cry (with apologies to Shakespeare): "Gome one, come all, and damned bo he who first cried 'hold!'" I had a letter the other day from the father of an only son who was killed at Gallipoli. In it he says: "So you are trying to stir up some of the shirkers. Many around here say they won't offer until conscription is brought in, but when it is I would like to have the job to pick up the shirkers around here." I can somewhat enter into the father's feelings. The Bishop of Manchester thus delivers himself: —"The service of the country in sucli an emergency should have been made a duty incumbent on every citizen, and not the -voluntary enterprise of a few. It was just this spirit of volunteering that left it open to the unpatriotic to seize the opportunity to make gain out of their country's losses. The Government had not said plainly, as they ought to have said: ' This is a war which makes a demand on every citizen. The whole of the country in men and means must be p'i.eeel unreservedly at the disposal of the country. This war is not to be exploited for private profit. It is not to bo a private venture of even two or three millions of the citizens. But all who receive the protection of the country must obey the call of the country, and serve in what way the country bids them ' There would have been something far moro moving, far moro uplifting, in such a call than in all the posters and other devices which have ended in men being ready 1.fore munitions were ready for them, and all tho consequent unnecessary loss of life and wasto of money." The Eighth Reinforcement* are sailing at the end of this week, and have to come to Lyttelton and go up to Ohristohurch to parade the streets to stimulate recruiting. Stimulate, forsooth! If I had my way I would administer a, pill that would stimulate " without fear or favour, making no class distinctions. It is to b<> hoped that neither Mr Massey nor Sir Joseph Ward will think of going fco Britain until, the machinery is put in operation requiring every man who is fit for service to be ready when called upon to go to fche'front.-I am, etc., JoHN LDIE - Lawrence, November 8.

SiR.-May I venture, in view _ of the letters that have recently appeared in favour o£ conscription, to give, a few idea, on national compulsory service and the effect it is likely to have on the working class population of the country In the first place 1 wish to protest against the statements that are constantly appearing in the press that the working classes are practically unanimous on this important question. 1 am in a position to stateHhat there is a large sec-, tion of workers in Dunedin utterly opposed to any form of conscription. The advocates of conscription say that their method would mobilise tho forces ot the country Would they? In my opinion it would- just be the force that would _ demobilise them. Anti-conscript;on activities have, up to the present, been conducted with a wise restraint in this country but the conscriptionists will certainly find tne limits of their power if they press things to an issue. The confessed; objects are threefold:—(l) To cheapen soldiery ;■ (2) to bring the workmen into military servitude , ; (3) to strifle civil liberty, as is done in L.ermany. During the times we are now experiencing the people are prepared to do anything which can be presentably labelled patriotism. What better chance, therefore, could there ever be of conscripting the people than now presents itself. Inc shackles of conscription can now be palmed off" as the emblem of patriotism, and, as conscription will make the British people as subservient to their rulers as the German people are to theirs, what could be better. The conscriptionist says tha"t hie system would make each man work in his own sphere. This does not happen m other countries where conscription "is in force. France, which has had compulsory militaryeervice for over a century, has 1300 doctors of medicine guarding railways and cattle at the present time when their services are urgently needed to attend the wounded and sick soldiers. The advocates of conscription will tell you that this sort of thing would not be possible under their system, but is our War Office so perfectly free from human weaknesses that we should expect it, with its inexperieace, to do better than the French War Office with over a century s experience? We are also told that Lord Kitchener and the Home Government say that this war "will tax our utmost resources in men arid money." (Please note "men and money.") Therefore, though both these _ commodities are urgently needed, men, being the least valuable or sacred of the two, will be conscripted, but money we will leave to be exercised at its own sweet will. If we should conscript men, why hot money? In conclusion, I would like to point out the really great point of the conscriptionits—namely, the. cost. Conscription means cheap soldiers. This is proved by the fact that every married recruit in the Old Country costs the community 23s weekly and a single recruit 8s Id weekly. Comment is needless, as the same conditions would proportionately obtain here if the system of conscription became law, as all singls men would be called upon first, for the one essential reason—namely, the ' cost. It will be well for workers who advocate conscription to think this over and to remember that there is a volume of opposition to conscription which no amount of cajolery or mendacity, or police or military force will either bend or\break.—l am, etc.. Dunedin, November 8. Anti-Humbug.

Sib,—Tho support given to Mr Edie, Mr Jeffory, and myself in the columns of your paper by correspondents, and the number of personal congratulations I have received from every class of the community, convince me that we have voiced the keen feeling of New Zealand to-day, and particularly that of parents of men in the battle line. Side by side with the evidences of a rising storm of public feeling as to local laxity, we hear that Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward are going Home to take part in an academic discussion, which to rny mind is entirely superfluous until the war is over, for this simple reason that it can have no effect on the conduct of the present conflict for which all our Imperial arrangements are made. Mr" Maesey and Sir Joseph Ward have a duty to perform here, and that dutv is boldly to summon Parliament, face the question of conscription in its widest and most comprehensive sense, vicluding wealth and property, and set the Empire- a lesson in courage and resource. There is the finest opportunity to-day _ for the National Cabinet to show that it is a combination of courageous statesmen. Not long ago Mr Massey mouthed the old shibboleth that one volunteer is worth three pressed men. That shibboleth is one of the narcotics with which Britain has lulled herself into false security. It is ifjerely a. platitude, and it is quite untrue. Pacifists and theorists love _ tlioso siliy platitudes. Or. platform and in the press iney have mouthed another palpably false platitude, "God is. in his Heaven, all is well with the world," and have then gone to sle&p, satisfied that in some supernatural way the world ran as it ought. We have h"ad ft rude awakening from our midsummer dream, and the man who can look on tho horrors of Louvain, the Armenian ljutchory, tho helliehness of the German outr'ages again in Serbia, the murder of Nurse Cavell and the sinking of unarmed passenger ships, and can still mouth the shihboleth that "All is well with, the world" is sjmply as much a slave to superstition as the old woman who believes in fairies and bogies. It is shibboleths such as those that prevent Mr Massey and tho National Cabinet from leading New Zealand as statesmen, and taking a bold and courageous course instead of being dragged at the c.art-tail of public opinion, as it seems they will be. What is this bogey Mr Massey and Mr Allen are boggling at, and What evidence can Mr Massey produce in favour of the Superior courage of voluntary fighters? Indeed, as a writer in a local paper say 3, wo luivo absolutely very little voluntaryism, because we have to beg, cajole, and plead like a. pauper on i the street corner begging a penny, to get men to go, and the result is that whilst boys from 17 years up have been induced to falsify their ages and volunteer, older, seasoned men are shirking. Th's so-culled and belauded "voluntaryism' , is little short national charitable aid, and is a disgrace to our manhood. The attitude of tho National Cabinet, and particularly (if Mr Allen, is an amusing instance of straining at a gnat after swallowing tho camel. Mr Allen was one of those who put aside political expediency to support the Liberal Government in inaim-uratinjr compulsory national training. When he did that he voted for the principle that the "necessities of the State supersede the personal rights of the individual." I believe that to be a sound and a wholesome prin-

ciplo, and I submit that the rights which individuals have are not to be superior to tho duties which, as units of a State banded together for eclf-protection, they morally owe to the community when its common liberty is in danger. There are men shirking that fluty on sheep runs, farms, and on orchards, in shops, and factories, and in all occupations in New Zealand. The Government itself is shirking the duty of confiscating some wealth, and the whole thing is not the exercise of ai right at all but thti shillyshallying avoidance of a Godgjven duty. The introduction of national compulsory training in itself marked a new era in the history of the Empire, and we led the way in a bold, statesmanlike manner. We broke away from tho shibboleth that the patriot only should bleed and die for the craven, and boldly laid down the principle that the duty lay" on every son born of woman. Does vh"a result of that action go to prove that the men who have been compelled 10 train are Ices bravo than these who volunteered? Search tho records of Gallipoli, and they answer with a crushing " No." Tho principle having been established _ that it shall be compulsory for men to train to defend their liberties, there is no reason why that principle should not bo carried to its logical end and applied to service when the country's .liberty is in the balance. If after compelling a man to train we boggle at the logical corollary of compelling him to do his duty when the liberties ho has been trained to defend hang trembling in the balance, then we have no right to use any compulsion whatever. It is only because it is imperative for the common safety of a liberty menaced by hell and all its angels that we lisa compulsion at all, and to apply compulsion to preparation and then bogglo at its application when tho real menace for which it has been used to prepare is upon us is absolutely illogical, absurd, and childish.

The finest men in the European war today are ths .French soldiers. Even our national egotism cannot blind us to this fact, and to shut his. eyes and talk about one of our men being equal to three of tho French is surely not creditable to Mv Masscy. They are not. Our men are good men, and we are justly proud of them, including those compulsorily trained, but that is no reason why wo should let other men shirk their duty. The shirkers have absolutely no right to bo in New Zealand, and we ought to make it too hot to hold them. In that duty we ought to have the courageous lead of the Cabinet. Let us cease mouthing platitudes and praying and pleading, and boldly say: "Go to your duty.' We owe it as'a duty to those boys of ours in Gallipoli. as a duty to our parenthood, as a duty to New Zealand, _ and as a sacred duty to ourselves to poniard a somnolent, dodcre-the-risk, iake-the-line-of-leastresistanee Cabinet into wakefulness, and if possible to put some of the. starch of statesmanship into its flabby backbone. I speak frankly, and I speak bluntly. . This is no time for white kid gloves and courteous platitudes, and if our Government cannot emulate Cromwell and lead, we must perforce drive it. I do not say the following is a literally accurate quotation, but it, in my opinion, sums up what we need here today: — "Oh for a man with a head,*heart, hand, Like some of the simple great ones gone For ever and ever by On" still strong man in a blatant land, Whatever they call him, what care I? Aristocrat! autocrat! democrat! . One who can do and dare, not lie!"

Is Mr Massey that man? Thousands of parents are looking to him to have the courage of a statesman and the vigour of a Seddon, who would not have run Home to talk platitudes, but would have led New Zealand, as he did in the Boer trouble, to courageous heights of action, aud_ taught the Empire what men of bold initiative can do. The ball is at Mv Massey's foot j he_ can kick a goal, and a country seething with indignation is watching him. Has he the courage to kick it? If he goes Borne leaving things as they are, he may , find on his return that the lid has blown off a volcano in his absence. I appeal to him to act. Where is my friend, Mr John MacGregor, with his open letters now?—l am, etc., ' . J. J. Ramsay. Alexandra, November 6.

Sib, —I have read with interest the letter which appeared in Saturday's issue, over the signature "Conscription at Once." The details offered, the naming of the district, the mention of the occupation of the young man who is pilloried, inevitably lead to swift identification. I happen to know the young man to whom reference is made, and crave your leave to show how baseless is the accusation brought against him : Just 14 months ago, when we were sending our first soldiers to the fighting line, my young friend was engaged in teaching, under the Southland Board of Education. He was then, as now. working for his certificate, and was attending classes held in Invercargill upon Saturdays. The call to arms foil upon willing cars and heart, and so, one Saturday morning, neglecting classes, he went to the defence office and enlisted. He was examined the same evening, passed as fit, and promptly telephoned to Mr Bell (the secretary of the Education Board) and made arrangements to be released at once from his position. On Monday morning, two days after, he was paraded, ready for entraining, when he received a telegram, which called him home — one of those messages that no true man, however great his patriotic fervour,, dare neglect. He showed it to the officer commanding, who bade him go, and said he would stop the train for him, if necsssary, at the right station. He duly left the train, his baggage, and his mates, found his way home, "Catlins district way," and there was faced with circumstances perfectly known to me, Sir, but not to be flung rudely into the correspondence cbluhins of a daily paper; circumstances which compelled him for the time —mark the phrase, "for a time"—to withdraw his proffered servioe. He was appointed, as your correspondent states, correctly, to a local school, no great "reward," seeing that he resigned a school that he might go, and thus was," though now under the Otago Board, practically reinstated in his old position, and at that hard post ho has stayed, chafing at the delay', but doing his duty like a man. Had he persisted in his first intention and gone to camp, indeed, his friends and neighbours. might have looked askance at him; I certainly should have deplored his action. He waited with what patience he could muster till time should do its work, and tho voice that pled with him to stay should learn to say, "Go, my boy; God be with you" ; and the man that has done this thins, Sir, will not fail tho Empire when he lies upon a Turkish or a Serbian hillside, as ho is presently like to do. For time has done its work, and the man whom some have called a shirker has joyously rejoined the force, .'is all who really know him knew he would. These are unusual times, Sir, or I should scarcely have written in so intimate a strain. We are all strung and nervours; we say things, yes, and think and feel thinss. which in calmer days we should not. I do not for a moment think that .the writer of the lettpr to which I have renlied meant to be cruel, meant to hurt another. I recall my own impulsive days, and many .a thing said, written, publ:«V>pd, whVh I"never dreamt could hurt, but which yet did so. Nor am I in the least afraid that the young teacher to whom attention has been drawn will be greatly troubled by the matter; he is more of a man than that. I have written as I have, not for his sake, at all, but for the f=akr> of those whom wo forget when we speak hastily, unguardedly. It is on fond mothm am] proud sisters thrse heavy burdens fall; it is the;" who feel the slur. Slurs may be wholly baseless. a« in the present case; actions that look like cowardice may be bravo and manly: but tho u<?lv word has been said, the innuendo mado, and the thought that son or brother is brands wounds a woman's heart. It would bs wfll for us all in these hours of .ntioinl and individual trial to try to curb our sneech. lost, unawares, wo add to the afflictions of tho tim o, . T pli""1H add mv namp if any useful purpose would H" served by sicrning it; vou arc at perfect liberty.to mention it "should you desire to do so, to inquire^.— I ntn, etc., \ X. November 7.