DUTY TO STATE

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVII, Issue 68, 22 February 1939, Page 3

DUTY TO STATE

TRAINING OF YOUTH NEED FOR COMPULSION. MASTERTON, Last night. Making reference to the fact that last year out of a quota of 42 men from Pahiatua to Palliser Bay only 17 went to the Territorial Training < camp, Mr T. Jordan, president of the ■ Masterton branch of the New Zea- 1 land Defence League, said that to his 1 mind it was deplorable. There was ‘ something radically wrong with the system of education in this country ‘ when they could get only 17 men to go into training for a week. Mr Jordan said he thought we could learn something from those countries that we were inclined to revile. Men who had been at Home had told him of the intensity of the desire to serve their country that was manifest in the young in some of those Continental countries. He believed that there was real spiritual value in the willingness of young men to serve their country, and if our system of government was to survive and flourish, and if the liberty which was its life blood was to remain pure and strong, then this desire to serve one’s country, in either a social, public, or industrial way, would have to be regarded not as mere eccentricity but as the normal habit of mind. He

appealed to all to encourage the youth in this country to do their duty. The State had a right to expect a return for what it had spent on youth and to get some return for its investment, said Mr Jordan, and he exhorted all citizens to do something to assist Territorial training. He made a special appeal to employers to assist by allowing their employees time off for training. “Tell them you expect them to go,” said Mr Jordan, “and at the same time say they will not lose anything by it. 'The extra small amount needed to make up wages can be regarded as a small increase in insurance premiums, and a very good investment, too. ’ ’