CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20050, 7 April 1914, Page 3

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER'S OPINIONS.

SOME STRAIGHT TALKING

FATIGUE WORK SUGGESTED

The members of the Waibotara County Council, at their meeting yesterday, maoe no bones about expressing their opinions in regard to conscientious objectors to the military law. A communication was received from the 'Minister of Defence asking for suggestions as to what work these objectors could put to in lieu of training. It was stated that fheie were 69 objectors registered.

The chairman (Mr. W. .liitchie) was emphatic in his opinion that no lenltiiiey should be shown to these individuals. They should be made to attend the concentration camps, and made to do the dirty work of the caimp. The speaker said*he was not a fortnight in the wintry when lie was called upon to taiif; an oath to handle the rifle. Had he -conscientiously objected, he would have been bundled into the stockade up there (pointing vo Queen's Park, the site of the old Uutland stockade). If these men, he went on, did not want to fight for the country, they should leave the country. He characterised their objections iae "downright humbug." David, of old, he said, and all religious men, were great figfiters. He thought no notice should be taken of the letter.

'Mr. Ross: You do not want to get away from the Commandments. There is the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." These men object to killing. The Chairman: That is too abstract a question.

Mr. Ross, continuing, said that his opinion was that all men who did not believe they should protect their country, should leave 'T6. It was absolutely nonsense that tiney should object on conscientious grounds. If a man would not stand up to defend Ms country, he should not be considered as a citizen. Mr. Hoss said he was trained as a voltmteer as a boy, and he had no reason to regret it. An objector should not be a I lowed, to stay in the country. He should- be d-sported as the agitators in South Africa were? Mr. Ross said that GO odd men shoulct not be allowed to dictate to the country. Mr. Morrison said he was in sympathy with the chairman's remarks to a certain extent. The Minister of Defence was evidently in a "difficult position. .The objectors should be made to -attend the concentration camps and put to do the scavenger work. "Let them do the fatigue duty," he said, "and the transport work. There would be plenty to do to keep them employed."

The Chairman: I have no mercy for these jokers. They are a lot of shams. It was laziness and not conscientiousness that prompted them to object. :Mr. Morrison movecl.'and Mr. Rose seconded, that the suggestions he mentioned be embodied in the reply t-o the Minister's letter. This was carried.

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