"WHY SHOULD THE QUAKERS HUHT?"

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1188, 25 July 1911, Page 9

"WHY SHOULD THE QUAKERS HUHT?"

Sir,—l notico in your valuable paper the account of the stand for conscience, which the Quakers, as a religious body, have taken in respect to military service, compulsory training, and conscription; and I, with many others, sympathise with them. Conscription is a hated word to thousands of British subjects. It reeks of Franco in the days of tho first Napoleon, and of those countries in Europe, which are even at present ruled by customs which are still saturated by old despotism. Thousands of youths have left these military-governed countries in the past in order to avoid conscription, and as good citizens, they have found a haven in the hitherto free countries of tho British Empire; and no one can saybut that they have .proved themselves to 'be good -colonists and law-abiding citizens. Every man does not wish to bo a soldier, and, Sir. Editors where docs God givo a nation the authorised power to compel men to be soldiers? This is a question which 1 would like to see answered. Nations, if their laws are just ones, are only the ministers of God for good, as far as civil government is concerned. Government lias legitimato and authorised sphere, but that sphere is likely to be exceeded, when a nation is occupied with its, own ambitious designs. No one can make us believe that God endorses the action of a Government which, in its zeal in any direction, by its laws, violates the principles and the consciences of many of its subjects. This a nation does, when it compels men to 1» soldiers. Compulsion in this direction is outside of its prescribed limits. A law that requires a conscience clause, although being an attempt at justice, is an unjust and weak law, because it violates by its enactment the principle of freedom, either religious or civil, of some of a nation's subjects. Otherwise, if it did not encroach somewhere, it would not require to bo provided with conscience clauses to make it suitable to ihe national palate. It is a delicate thing, Sir. Editor, when a nation makes laws, which, to be effective, have to be sustained by conscience clauses. Laws of that description are always unjust and tyrannical:, and it is a mighty question, if our so-' called military law is not; one of these encroaching violations in the realm c f freedom—national freedom and justice. Nations assume power which is outside of their legitimate sphere of oneraiim. They go beyond the authority which God sanctions them to sway, and they call upon their subjects to obey their laws in some direction, instead of obeying God, and of being obedient to the eonseienco whicli He, as Supremo Ruler, has 'given them to obey. ' /

Xew Zealand, Mr. Editor, calls upon the Quakers and many others, civil and religious, to obey its mandates respecting military conscription, for that is what it is. it may be, called the citizens' army, as a plausible and soft-sounding phrase; but the law passed in A"ew Zealand, and in the Commonwealth, is conscription, nevertheless — straight-out conscription. Men arc forced into the ranks by law, and now according to the procedure of real events, tho Dominion is even thinking of violating the principle contained in tho conscience clause—the only piece of justice in a law that is unjust - , and now- talks of doing away with its provisions, and of forcing that law upon all, irrespective of religion, conscience, freedom, liberty and national right. In truth, Mr. Editor, the fact is this: God and His rights are to be moved. aside; His supremacy with man is to take a secondary place, and the Dominion and itsmilitary law are to have both tho preeminence and the precedence. New Zenland steps into the place of God; so anyway the Quakers, and thousands of others, think. A. nation, we know, bears not the. sword in vain; that is, the executive sword, when wielded in its capacity as ruler, and when used justly for carrying out the penalties imposed upon (be transgressors, But it is altogether an assumption of power, when a nation makes aws, which, if carried into effect, are little less than mandates that will resiill: in the persecution of manv of its subject's. These evidently are the lines the Government of Now Zealand and iU military law are travelling on to-dav. Nations to-day, in a fever of excitement, are looking upon men as food for bullets. The war spirit is being nurtured from the cradle. The rifle succeeds tho feeding-bottles. Justice is lost sight of, and amidst armies, navies, Dreadnoughts, arsenals and cannon, the whole world is nrepnring for the great crisis which is before it. Men who see the future in its true aspect are called upon to enter the arena, amid a preparation for war, without a respect to conscience, liberty, or God. They are expected to become the military machines of the nation in which they live. Great Britain has never vet called for conscription. Why should the Dominion do it? Why should a Government turn itself inlo a Napoleon? A Government has a right to call for volunteers, but compulsion is wrong. Great Britain in tho past has recognised this fact; and whatever the future may have in store for her. to-day she is the greatest Empire under the sun. New Zealand, while'considering future event?, may thiuk she is justified in making laws lii provide, for defence. Great Britain, in the future, may thiuk so ton; but those events, when they arrive, may have a dif-

ierent aspect from the-a that are now anticipated. 'J'ho : p wl 1; , lliinl; lluil cou-rrip-il'JU will meet, tin- emergency mav (iuil tnonisclves defeated. Anvlum, it is a pity tar a n.ili:m in'have recourse lu conscription— an idea which litis proved a cm--? I') civilised Kurnpe, and which has covered it-; battlefields with dead men'-; bni-cs. Why then, Mr. llditor. in lh,. ligat at' these fad.., should not: ihe Onagers roller. In fight? Or am- human being wilt) roads his Jliblp, loves (iod, and who wishes, lor conscience sake, in obey (iod, ought ill any civilised and iron c'nunirv in bn allowed to do the same—(lod is to be obeyed rather than man every time.— 1 am, etc-., J.R