FOR CONSCIENCE

Southland Times, Issue 20205, 16 June 1927, Page 8

FOR CONSCIENCE

STUDENT’S PROTEST OBJECTION TO MILITARY TRAINING KNEW BETTER THAN HIS CHURCH (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, June 15. An application for exemption from military training was made in the Police Court by Alan Morgan Richards, the divinity student who at Tuesday’s meeting of the Auckland Presbytery unsuccessfully sought support for his attitude in refusing to undergo training. Richards was charged with failing to attend drill. Sergeant-Major Landman, for the Defence Department, said accused had been transferred to Auckland in March, 1926. He had previously been at the Hamilton High School, and it was understood that he then aspired to become a non-commissioned officer in the school cadets. After he had been transferred to Auckland he had written to the department asking to be transferred to another company. He did not attend drill, and after several notices had been sent him he wrote stating that he did not intend to attend as it was against his principles. He had done no drill since then. Mr W. R. McKean, S.M.: What is your religious belief? Accused: I am a Presbyterian. Magistrate: It is news to me that the Presbyterian Church takes this view. Accused replied that it was the logical conclusion of the resolution of the Presbyterian General Assembly passed last November which had declared that military training was wrong in principle. If it was wrong in principle it was obviously wrong to take part in it. The Magistrate said that exemption had been granted to members of a certain church whose teaching was against military training, but not to members of the Presbyterian Church. Accused: I do not stand so much on the opinion of my church as on my own belief that military training is un-Christian. Accused added that he thought war amounted to wholesale murder, and that he would be failing in his Christian duty if he did not oppose preparation for it. He based his belief on the command to do no murder, and held that military training was preparation to do murder. Under cross-examination accused stated that when he was at the High School he had not intended to go into the church. He had not asked the Presbytery for its support, but for its views, and the resolution it had carried on Tuesday was what he had expected, although not what he had hoped for. The Magistrate: You think you are wiser than they? Accused: In this matter, yes. I stand to my own conscience. The Magistrate: The State has placed upon you certain duties. I hope you do not intend to persist in this attitude. Accused: I do. The Magistrate: You are young yet and your ideas may change. You had better go home and think it over. Accused: I feel I must obey my own conscience before any external law. The Magistrate: You will find you will have to obey an external law as long as you live in a civilised country. He added that he would not impose a heavy penalty on this occasion, but if accused appeared before the Court again he would have to be dealt w'ith differently. A fine of £1 was imposed, accused being allowed 14 days in which to pay.