MILITARY SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 13, 3 June 1914, Page 5

MILITARY SERVICE.

DUE I'UO.U MAS TO TUB STATK ' IKTEKESTINti COMPARISON B\ ■' (Jls/NJiiUL HAMILTON. 11;- Telegraph -Press Association. ' Wellington, Last Night. J ~- Gcneral Sir lan HaraiHwi w:i f the '.„ guest of the New SfraluiiU Club at > luncheon to-day. In the tourer of a speech, he made some interesting rt ferencra to the Swiss defence tchem-. He ' , wanted to give .t'liom one or two [xdnts !Al to bear in mind. One was thai New : i% Zealand was =v\\n times* larger than -'r. Switzerland'. Another that s'he had onlj ',# one-fourth of the poep;e, and another ■{?, that s'he'had three tunes the rewnue. \ These figures upon the face of it mulco ° ) the New look rather fortu- < % mile people. Whereas <he Swiss out of ■ v u itcrtal revenue of £4,000000 »pont k £1,750,000 on defence, or nearly half of > '.4 its revenue, New Zuiland only spent -% £500,000 out of nearly £12,000,000. v? Comparing Uic situations of the two ~$ countries, he reminded ithwn that ',s Switzerland, being an inland Slate in % Europe, was surrounded by the gr< atcst '&' military powers in the wofid, while. New & Zealand was very far removed from any .•&! danger. Thus, wi the face of it, there M iseeomed to bs grave reason* why Switz- M crland should have he r military house '& in order and comparatively little for ~'M New Zealand. There were dangers in "-If tlie Pacific which made up the situation, and those were the reasons w""y we M should have an army here. -^ Although danger was remote in Swiitx- M crland the thought of evading i-ervice ; J| did not ariio. The reason was emiou*. '*§& It undonJifedJy lay in the attitude of « the women <to defaulters. He trial to j'hH imagine what would have been tlie at- i» titude of the Swrss or the Roroans had •&■ they been faced by a section of the com- ■*s&& munity desiring to evade per.-'enai *pr- « vice ito Jhe state. He was pretty sure 'JH that unless their objection had been A "*• »| religious one they would have rbuined "ijl no special punishment or imprisonment iam or anything of Mi at sort, tin- w'wp. Mea '« being tlmt a man must oMnin b-j poli- .^ffl lical rights by rendering himself fit to .Jf| exercl-<> them, jffl