THE OBDURATE OBJECTOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20743, 14 June 1929, Page 8

THE OBDURATE OBJECTOR.

Possibly the objector to military training on the plea of conscience appears as glorious to himself as he seems inglorious to others. The young men, students of divinity, who, having refused to attend drill, were this week at Auckland fined and deprived of their civil rights for ten years, had displayed that kind of obduracy against which the force of argument is expended in vain. In deference to the religious scruples which they professed they were offered an opportunity of escaping all military training, the condition being that they accepted the alternative of rendering service of a different kind. That service would have involved neither the wearing of a uniform nor the experience of any training of the description which they would have us believe they find so repugnant. But the offer, which surely represented a reasonable concession to them, was coldly declined. Could it be that service at a public hospital was not considered to be heroic enough by these young men who are being trained to serve

humanity? In refusing to accept alternative service, and in their foolish display of what they may regard as the martyr spirit, they have acted in a manner contrary to the advice of the Auckland Presbytery, which has given careful consideration to their position. Youth is proverbially high-handed and prone to think itself wise beyond its years. In these Auckland cases the attitude of the objectors resolves itself simply into a defiance of the law. Defiance of the law cannot be tolerated. People may have their own opinions about the law. A great many persons probably find it irksome and at variance on one point or another with their own ideas of what the State should or should not do and of what constitutes unwarranted dictation on its part. But it does not occur to these people to defy the law upon these personal grounds. They have to accept and to submit to the laws as they find them, and very properly so, for upon respect for the law is the whole social fabric founded. The young man who, objecting to military training on allegedly conscientious grounds, is offered an opportunity to render non-military service as an equivalent is reasonably treated. When he rejects the alternative as well as the original liability, simply flouts the"law, and attaches to bis own conception of his personal duty as a member of the community an importance which augurs an extravagant self-conceit, he i forfeits claims to further consideration and sympathy.