CONSCRIPTION.
MILLERTOX'S PROTEST. AND ME. MASSEY'S REPLY (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, December 10. A copy of the following resolution passed at a public meeting held in Millerton recently has been forwarded to the Prime Minister:—"That this meeting of 'Millerton citizens regards the attempt to fasten conscription on New Zealand as disruptive and dangerous, and declares that the success of conscription would be the achievement of Prussianism. We are justified in regarding the attempt to Prussianise New Zealand as an endeavor to provide for the ultimate defeat of working-class ideals, Finally, we demand the nationalisation of capital as the most effective method of providing for the circumstances created by the war. In the opinion of the meeting, the volunteer system has never been given a fair trial, since no guarantee is given to anyone inclined to volunteer that their dependents will be properly provided for." In a letter sent in reply to this communication, the Prime Minister says:— "I believe that most of the citizens of your town *nd district are just as willing to do their duty as the citizens of any other part of New Zealand. I am very strongly of opinion that if conscription becomes necessary in the Dominion during the present war it will be because we have here—and I would rather not believe this—a number of shirkers and anti-militarists, many of them without dependents, who cannot be induced by any other method to do their duty to their country. "This is not a time for mischievous attempts to set class against class, such Hi seem to me to be indicated in the later portion of your resolution. On the contrary, this is a time for all classes and all sections of the community to stand together against a common enemy, one of whose aims, and. I believe, the principal one, is to subject British people to a tyranny such as thev have not experienced for a thousand years. Heaven help New Zealand if she ever became Prussianised in the real sense of the word."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19151220.2.31
Bibliographic details
Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1915, Page 6
Word Count
339CONSCRIPTION. Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1915, Page 6
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