CONSCRIPTION.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVIII, Issue 3, 1 September 1927, Page 13

CONSCRIPTION.

■ A letter urging the abolition of compulsory military training has been" signed by the Representative of the various Christian Churches of New Zealand. The Society of Friends has put forth a bolder appeal from which we quote the following sentences. While thanking and supporting our friends who are urging the abolition of this conscription system, we, speaking for the Society of Friends m New Zealand, would appeal to our fellow-citi-zens to make a still bolder venture along the path of peace and friendship, casting aside all armaments and preparations for war. In our daily life we know now much happier are those who go about trustful and friendly than those who suspect and fear their neighbours, carry weapons and resoit to

methods of force. We believe that m like manner far greater happiness awaits any nation that will put its faith m the power of friendliness. Tn that reliance on the good, lies far greater safety than m hostile devices. Every •-■war shows that armaments do Hot protect the people; the experience of the Quaker colonists m Pennsylavania proves that friendliness does protect. Wo cannot too often repeat the story of that great experiment of the early founders of our Society. They went out among the American Indians, with whom other colonists were m almost constant warfare ; they took no weapons, built no blockhouses; they even left their doors unlocked. Though Charles 11. assured William Perm that they would all be killed, not one man, woman or child was lost from among those who kept to the Quaker way of unarmed peace. And safety was only the least of the blessings of their life of concord with their Indian neighbour:*. It ?s always easy to imagine evil designs m others. Many fear what Asiatic peoples might do if New Zealand were unarmed: but we believe those fears would prove quite baseless if New Zealand pursued a policy of true friendship.