CONSCRIPTION IN NEW ZEALAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 243, 14 October 1938, Page 12

CONSCRIPTION IN NEW ZEALAND

i Sir.—lt is proposed that a group of ■ about one thousand men, against the expressed wishes of nine hundred and fifty of them, are to be conscripted for the service of the people of NewZealand, from April 1 next for the remainder of their working lives. Re-

fusal means exile, or .complete loss oi their means of livelihood. The group of men referred to arc the general medical practitioners of New Zealand. The proposal is expressed in the Labour Party’s Social Security Bill. As far as I am aware, this is the first assertion, in peace time, of the supreme power of the State over the rights of the individual in any British country. As an elector I try to find a policy in some political party which will be helpful to the people in sickness ami in health. 1 cannot consider the advantages of any proposals put forward by a party which is so heedless of individual freedom. That the doctors are numerically few tends to cloud the issue, but the> are men of the same habits as ourselves. If we value our own freedom we cannot support a party which would sacrifice the liberty of any of our good citizens —however few the ? are, however much the State wouh. benefit. Labourers, tradesmen, watersideis. farmers, shopkeepers, men an women—and doctors —we are fret men and women first, and servants to the State only of our own free will. No elector can afford to give this freedom away for the sake of any party or any policy.—l am, etc., „ F. K. PEARCE. Upper Waitotara, Oct. 12.