SOLDIER OR CITIZEN?

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 290, 18 August 1919, Page 1

SOLDIER OR CITIZEN?

“A straw shows the wax the* wind blows,’’ and s«*vr r al s.raxxs latclx have • ho.\n xu a strong Ran * blowing in i r direction of a Military Despotism, it the Minister ot Defence has his xx.q x\i* are to tease to lx' .« tree democracy, our youth educated and trained as citizens of the fieoM counttx the sun ever shone yn, and xxe an- to become one vast i amp, our bm>taken from the tare of scholar!) teachers who are traim.ig them to be scientists, inventors, thinkers, quick to act on their own initiative, and are to In* handed over to the drill-ser-geant to be made parts of one vast mat hint\ to eilrey blind!) their mill tar\ autocrat, anti “never to think ot thinking for themselves at all.” We stand at the parting of the wax -. It max seem a small thing time months in camp, but “we see d nilx hi the pieseht xx hat is sinalt anti xxhal is great.” it is the tiist step on the mud leading to militarism. We wt re told that we worn to war t»> ;rush I'tussim Militarism. It th s in me is tarried into effect, then morallx tin xitiorx tests xxith (iermany. We haw not conquered Lius ianism, but it has conquered, and is dominating us. I his scheme would seriously interfere xxith the box’s education, anil preparation for his life xxotk, and this is of tie highest impoi t.mc e. Out edit cation system i- stinted to provide for Defriuc a I read x, an<! noxx thex xx int to place xoutlis for three months, not under F.ducatiotxa) Authorities, but under Defence Autocrat*. The most serious handicap to the Biitish Army was the poor physical condition of tie people, due to impiopcr feeding, housing, to the* use of intoxicant', nr l fo diseases caused by overcrowding..

x)ur Dominion’" best defence i> a |rc*e anti tit manhood and xxom.inhood. Increase education grants don’t starve our schools; let doctors and dentists attend the children and reined) phx'i cal defects. (lix'c* physical culture ar.d everx condition necessary bn health, but <n the name of common "cr.se do not take our box s during their most impiessionable pi riod anil heul them in rantps and dull them into tiutiniiat.i. I hen, agtiin, grave mortil dangers nlxx.ixs titteml the herding of xoung men in tamps with out the iestituning home intliience. We do not xxi"li to enlarge upon tins tisjKs t, but scent . t«•«ik. place at camp x\ hit h aie unprintable, and we are not going m band our young sons over t<> this at the bidding ot an% military autocrat. Thou xxhtit about the conscientious objectoi: No nation can afford to disregard the supremacy of conscience*. It is true* that xxhile xxe xvere at war st enes like those which look place at th** Wanganui Barracks pi*s cel xxith onlx .i protest. Whether true or false, xet thousands of our women Im'lmvciT that xxe had onix a choice of evils, that it was either military despotism at home or the mil it try despotism of the Hun. Believing tl us out of two evils the*)’ chose the lesser. But xxe are not at xxar now. and xxe have no e*x< use, let alone a reason, lot fnmplmg on the rights ot conscience. Let us prepare for peace. I he xxax to do thin is to train our youth ;is scholars t itizens, and patiiots, not as soldiers. ktow to stop war is the question. Not cntainlx by training our young manhood to think that xxar is the' serious business of life, and education onlv a side issue. A I.eague of Xa* tion" has hern formed. Wht can it

not p.iliciitlx educate all nations :a tin* principle of .» free democracx. F.xerx adult on** vote, no xx.n to be emered into xxithout a referendum ol the* |m*c•pie. Axxax x'ith sn rc*t diploni.icx, and tre.it all men and all na ti »i«s .is brother*. We knoxx the old saxx about how blest is he who gets bis blow in tiist. But if every n.i lion had to take a Referendum it xxoultl give all time to think, and would plow most effective in stop ping xxar. When a nation runs am »k, a> Herman) did in coir present state ot civilisation, all wt* could do was to meet tone xxith force. But it xx..s a barbarous method. I h< idea! for the* League of Nations should be to edit i ate every nation out of that bat barism, and to promote a biolherhooil <f nations. Where* there is a lede* ration of St.ile-, xxe h ;ve State ( oiuls and federal Courts, and out vast Umpire has the* House of Lords as i final Court of \ppeal. ft is onlx om st* p furthef to have Inteinational • ourts. Nations nax'e* been conquered when thex tie pc* in I upon a professional army. The Hebrew built his wall with wea pon in one hand and Bowel in the other. In the 1 days of Koine’s great nt's s the Roman left the* plough to lead the ami). So it will ever be*. Tiained and fit citizens xxill defer ! their homes if tilt* necessity arises; and will do it better than an armx drilled till all original*!)' is drilled out of them. Militarism failed in (ierinany, as it ever xxill fail. We xx.il not have Briissianism introduced here; xxe have no desire to train the tx jw* of man xx h murdered N’ur"r fa veil and sank the Lusitania, that is the full flower of militarism. The F.ternal Father did not plan a world where “might is tight.’’

We can o nly set* a step ahead. Uui next step i- to improve conditions, that thrx max make for health, give every child its light to he well horn, and help it to develop along its own lines. 'l'rain its physical, menial moral and spiritual capacities to tlwi very highest point Build up that loftier race ‘‘With Hame of freedom in their soul . And light of knowledge in tin ii eyes.” Then we shall find that “Nation with nation, land with lan!. Inarmed, shall live r.s comrades f ree; In every heart and hi am shall throb The pulse of one fraternity/' Our ideal i- not a nation whose youth cringe beneath the heel of military autocracy, hut ea« h free to do as he pleases, because he onlx pie ases to do xxhat is right.