CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24698, 29 August 1941, Page 4

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

The principle enunciated .by the Government that the conscientious objector shall not be allowed to enjoy a pecuniary benefit, through his exemption from military service, should have the approval of all. The genuine objector must himself be somewhat painfully conscious' that, whatever sacrifice were demanded of him for his convictions, it is wholly incommensurate with that of the man who puts his beliefs to the test in the fire of modern warfare. The loss in effective income which he may incur by the direction of a tribunal is a trivial price to pay for non-compliance with the majoritywill of the nation of which he is a citizen. There can, indeed, be no ground for complaint by the most resolute pacifist that the Government is dealing unsympathetically with those who claim relief from tlje generally recognised duty of taking up arms against oppressors and of guarding hearth and home. The tolerance which it is proposed to extend to objectors becomes particularly marked in the case of those

who, their appeals having been dismissed by the duly-constituted boards, still refuse to accept service. It is difficult to see that such men, who presume to set themselves above the law and to defy it, are entitled to claim treatment any different from that prescribed for other lawbreakers. The Government, however, can perceive a subtle distinction by reason of which these defaulters are to be placed under discipline—as every soldier is—and detailed in special camps for the duration of the war. They are not, unless they prove refractory, to be treated as ordinary prisoners. The leniency of the Government’s plans for their detention is indicated in the appointment to inaugurate the first camp of a gentleman whose qualification for his post is his record of service with the Young Men’s Christian Association. If Mr Nash has, as he claims, interpreted correctly the feeling of the public as to the best method of dealing with those who refuse to obey a supreme edict of the State, there may be general approbation of his plans. Only those, however, with a sublime faith in the of all human motives will refrain from the thought that the provisions for meeting flagrant cases are open to flagrant abuse.