The Sun SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1918. RESURRECTING AN OLD SPOOK.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1360, 22 June 1918, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1918. RESURRECTING AN OLD SPOOK.

Socialists and other extremists fought conscription in this country on several grounds. One was that it would be diilicult—some said impossible—to eradicate when peace made it no longer necessary. The fact that these views were most general among the anti-militarists was sufficient reason for condemning them off-hand as absurd. The antimilitarists wanted neither voluntaryism nor .compulsion. They had —they have still—no stomach for fighting under any circumstances. We had thought the bogy had been well and truly laid, since lit tie has been heard of it for a considerable time. The seem-ingly-illimitable strength of the enemy and the reverses to Allied arms pushed the question of a militarised New Zealand into the background for a space, but it is being revived, as The Sun's correspondence columns show. We have had several letters on the subject since the rather foolish Labour resolution in the Council—a proposal which would have consigned certain trophies of war to the Museum for fear their exhibition in a public place would perpetuate the spirit of militarism in our midst. One or two writers who have supported that argument, it is astonishing to note, can scarcely be classed with the Bolshevik element. We had thought it incredible that any unbiased thinking man could have really persuaded himself that there was a danger of the Dominion being converted into one vast military camp. Such an attitude suggests that this country has come to like war as the Germans like it and live for it, or that those in authority have become so imbued with the ardour of military endeavour that they will perpetuate the- abhorred system in these islands whether the people will have it or no. It is a notion —it would be a misnomer to call it a conviction —that makes one doubt the sanity of its authors. Conscription obtains to-day and will prevail until (he end of the struggle, because in no other way could New Zealand fulfil its military obligations. When the Kaiser cries enough, compulsion will automatically cease so far as the Dominion is concerned. As the professional war-makers, the Germans will continue a nation of conscripts —unless the German democracy fakes charge and falls into line with iis fellows elsewhere. If the German militarists can be shackled, it will be many days before the arsenals and drill-sergeants will have to work overtime again. The world has. had enough of modern war—or war of any kind, for that matter. It is too frightful, too costly. To the free and independent peoples of the colonial Dominions war is the unutterable evil, the most hideous anachronism conceivable. New Zealand will want no more of it. She is in it because she could not out of it. When the world struggle is over, the national mind will turn with relief, not, as our" anti-conscription Jeremiahs predict, to the grim and oppressive the shape of compulsory military service, but to the healing of our economic wounds. To continue conscription when the need for it had passed would be the sheerest madness. It would hamper our recovery and development indefinitely. With our Allies, we have had sufficient blood-letting to last us for generations; we long to get the job over so that we can begin to rebuild and recondition anew. Our timorous correspondents must rid themselves of their hallucination—it cannot fairly be described as anything else. The menace they fear is impossible and inconceivable. The anti-militarists will probably persist in their efforts to frighten others with their turnip-head and candle spook. If they do so, it may be accepted as their method of preparing to renew their agitation against compulsory training after the war. While Germany remains unrepentant, the nations must provide adecpiate means of defence. In this country, that will signify little more than a reversion to an improved Territorial system. Conscription will not be necessary to the success of that scheme. Apart from considerations of national safely, universal military training has proved a splendid influence for moral and physical good on our ,young men. The pity is that so many of the anti-militarist leaders are too old to experience its benefits. A course of disciplinary training would possibly give them a saner outlook on life.

MORE NEWS—AND BETTER. Again, and with plaintive earnestness—what is wrong with Captain Malcolm Ross? Is he sick, or muzzled, or officially mistrusted and ignored? Why must we go to Australia, or to the private letters and journals of combatant soldiers, or

even on occasions to the great London dailies, if we would know with crisp and vivid detail what our Mends are doing in France? Yesterday, as our grateful readers know, we reprinted a graphic account by Lieutenant K. E. Luke of the ordeal of our division before Amiens. To make room for that story we scrapped the official correspondent's letter covering—or rather not covering—the same events and the same historic ground. In justice to our readers we had no alternative. Compared with the description we published, the story wc rejected was pallid and stale. It had about six paragraphs of pertinent and interesting matter, and about sixteen of meandering irrelevancies. The difference was too great to be ignored. Either the official correspondent is too blind and dull for his job, or he is kept in humiliating ignorance far back from the lines. The position is becoming intolerable. During the fortnight following that tragic 21st of March our division rose once more to the highest pitch of elliciency aivl reckless valour—and Captain Ross can detail to us calmly that a general returning one evening to Headquarters interrupted a New Zealander who had almost captured a hare! It is not expected, of course. that correspondents should march forward into an enemy barrage, or rush breathlessly about in some desperate salient noting and recording every gasp or groan. But it is expected that the Dominion, whose war-story is as glorious as its troops are efficient and valiant, should cease to be fobbed off with old wives' tales. If Captain Ross is the man, let the Government insist that he be granted the facilities. If he is not the recorder the circumstances demand, let our army at once have another.