THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 1407, 1 June 1916, Page 7

THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

MR ISITT^ ARDENT PLEA

ASPECTS DISCUSSED

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day. In the course of at speech on the Military Service Bill yesterday Mr Isitt made a powerful appeal on behalf of the religious conscientious objector. One of the great blots in this proposal, said Mr Isitt, is the absence from the Bill of any exemption clause for the religious objector from the military service, with provision, ifor alternative service.

; M<r 'Wilf ord : Do you. mean that, you would teach hjm. to put barbed wire in front of the trenches, instead of fighting in them? (Laughter.) Mr Isitt: "I am not disposed to joke about it. I recognise that the problem is a very intricate one, and that the difficulty is how to provide for exemption of the real conscientious objector, while keeping out loopholes for the shirker 1 and those who endeavor to escape. But are we going to allow a revival of the persecutions by the Stewarts in 1663 in this free country of ours i4 1916?" demanded the member, who went on to point out that religious objectors had for many years now been allowed to escape military service in England. The first thing Mr Asquith did when the Military Service Bill Mas brought in was to exempt those people from military service. Mr Wilford : The biggest failure ol the Bill.

Mr. lsitt: That is what- you think. There aro 500 of these Quakers' in this country— -300 men and 200 women. 1 admit I cannot understand their attitude. I myself would fight rather than see my wife violated and my children maimed. I would fight even if it meant perdition rather than crawl into heaven by not fighting; but though T cannot understand their views, I recogniso these people are consistent, and have in (past generations suffered untold miseries rather than forego their principles. To my mind it is hideous to say that because you believe that Christ your Master forbids you to fight, and you v won't fight, you should be put in gaol; and be subjected to indignity and persecution. I would rather forswear any mighty or any political position than be responsible for action of this kind.

Mr Hudson, who followed Mr Isitt, agreed that the scruples of religious objectors should be considered, but in anything done to relieve him of combatant service provision should be included to lay the onus on him of proving that his religious objections had not been adopted since August 4, 1914. "There is a clause in the British Act exempting conscientious objectors," said Mr McCombs, adding : "He is also protected in France and. Germany. The only country in the world in which he is. not protected is Russia, with its Siberian system. This country has taken a leaf out of Russia's book in connectiop with conscription,"