FIRST TO ADOPT CONSCRIPTION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 16, 26 February 1918, Page 2

FIRST TO ADOPT CONSCRIPTION.

Switzerland was the first European country to adopt universal service. The original founders of the Swiss Confederation enacted that whoever shirked military training was declared "devoid of honour and perjured,’’ and his house was vowed to destruction. Should a man summoned to take part in a military expedition prove unable to respond, owing to illness or some other valid reason, he had to furnish a capable substitute at his own expense. From the earliest days of the Confederation, too, the military authorities made special provisions for tending the wounded. In this respect they seem to have been in advance of their times.