THE DEFENCE ACT.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13420, 18 March 1914, Page 3

THE DEFENCE ACT.

(To the Editor, of "The Colonist.")

Sir,'—l crave space in youi- widely read paper that if possible I may eaable at Jeast some of fellow settlers to get a clearer view of some things that vitally affect us all. The subject has been brought before your readers by two letters, over the signature of .the Rev. Lambert, in which he claims certain rights (conscientious) as a citizen. Does he not yet understand that neither he nor any other- man under the jurisdiction of the military authority in this country has no citizen rights. All they have to do-is to obey; the sole object of parades and camps being for the purpose of subjugation of every man's will and personality to the will of one, and so far as the rev. gentleman's objection to camps being held on Sunday he ought to know that there is one code of morality for a military man and another for a civilian, and what is right for a soldier is wrong for a civilian. But unfortunately old superstitions die hard, and we have had so many lies told us in connection with militarism that unthinking people have accepted them as true, such, for instance, as the continnual scares engineered by military officers and money grabbers for the sole purpose of bleeding the taxpayers of the country; for instance, Lord Roberts tells the people of s Great Britain that tliere must be a great war with Germany. Why, who wants war ? Is it the farmer® or manufacturers or the merchants or the workers in either country P Great Britain is sending to Germany goods to the value of one hundred and forty i millions of pounds annually, and it is certain that if war is ever to foe between these countries it will be brought i about by the same agency that has! engineered war scares and wars as far back as the truth is known, and it is certain that the more militarism in. a country the less safety there will be. What every country wants is trade on fair terms. I am like Mr. Hayes, an officer in the United States Navy, in J one respect. When he lately visited Australia he said: "I feel ashamed of the Anglo-Saxon race with their war scares; go on with' your settlement, and never mind about defence." I p further, and say that every penny taken from the legitimate work of settlement and spent on so-called defence is a menace to the people of this Dominion. What is required for the defence of the country is a satisfied population occupying the whole of the country, with proper conditions of living. Both past and present Governments have professed "to have great sympathy with the back settler, but (feeds speak louder than words, and being fairly well acquainted with the treatment by both Governments of these people I take leave to doubt when they make such statements. For instance, * large sums of money' were spent by the Ward Administration on post offices when there were already the necessary buildings and staff to give such services as in their wildest dreams back settlers never hope to get, and if the back settlers asked for a mail or a telephone what happened? If they got a mail service they had to build their own office, and keep it free of charge for three years, and if the Department were 'favourable they could have a telephone 'by guaranteeing the interest on the cost for a number of years. But they could give^ a Dreadnought and institute conscription under the plea of a crisis which did not exist. The present Government is helping the settler by adding on to the cost of his land the survey fee which had been taken off by the previous Government and, of course, there is no money available for either railway or roads, and there are. men on land in this district who have been compelled to make their improvements and live on the land, and have been there for six years, and still cannot get a dray within miles of it, everything having to be carried on horseback. But we can find half a million a year to inculcate the morality that the Nelson Ministers' Association seem to object to, but why they should do so I cannot imagine, seeing that militarism has never made a man, and never will. A man is a thinking, reasoning being, who recognises his responsibility in connection with all his actions, but militarism robs him of all manhood by assuming complete control of him, both body and soul, and the sooner the Christian men and women of this country recognise these facts the better it will be for the morality of the rising generation. And the moral for the taxpayer is: "Yoii cannot expect to have settlement and soldiers, and if you want safety you must rid yourselves of this thing, which will certainly 'bring you trouble, it being the interest of so many to foment racial animosity." 1 am, etc., J. W. WIN. Maruia Springs, March 10th.