WHERE MILITARISM FAILS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1224, 5 September 1911, Page 4

WHERE MILITARISM FAILS.

Sir.—l am not n Socialist, and I served in the New Zealand AVar of 18G-1. Now (hat I tee how rapidly (his colony is falling into the hands of the clericals, I object to compulsory service. Militarism, in the past, has been the chief aim of Kcclesiasticism, and most of the ■wnrsXthrec-fourths, in fact) wots religious wars. People say that EccbsinsticiVm is dying out, and future wars will he trado w'atv? Nothing is further from I he truth, as the Socialists are nearly all tradesmen, and they, by tlieir unions, threaten, both in England and Germany, a general strike if war is entered upon. In I ho United States of America their free public school system of education is likely to go down before the advance of tho clericals. It is muck the same in Australia and New Zealand. Tho Council of Churches, equally with the Roman Church, is making tho. onslaught. Whether il. is We-sloyan, Presbytery, or Roman, human nntiu-e always grows tyrannical if we give it tho chance. Militarism only aids this spirit of tyranny. Out of' the (MOO seamen of the American fleet, that lately visited us, 1500 attended mass in Sydney. In a. lalo review- of American 'troops near New York, Gdi.u men went down on their knees on (he parade ground when tho Cardinal blessed them. In a late church t-orvice in Wellington I see that fifty tailors from the Challenger attended Mass. It is much the same with the Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Wcslcynns. Each of the churches strives to have a? many armed adherents as it can command. Those churches all get their, power from fostering the, military spirit. For if

recdom battles for itself, iu any way, n civil strife, ami Incomes too pronouncd as in the c:i.~e of the late general friku iu England, the military axo call- '<!, and thcii comes the real test of how reedoni of conscience is to go. 1 don t ilro giving this power into tho hands of ■'huvcli leaders at all, a.-.id that is why . object to compulsory xarvie.e. There-is a .story told of a battleship at 'ortlruul falling "in all hands for Sunday' norning service. The men fall in to heir four different fjrcat Church fceioiij. Aft-cr they were dismissed, one nii,n stood alone. To him tho bos'un ■aid: "Why didn't you fair in?" "Be•auso I'm an Agnostic!" was tho reply. 'You come along with me," paid the los'un, "you belong to the Church of England.'' Apart from this little, jest. I want your •eadors to realise that there will be no 'reedoin of conscience in New Zealand ivhen fifty or a hundred thousand men n-e oompnlsorily under airnis. As to impartiiij, , tho spirit of discipline imonprst the young men that is well cximplificd by the "Terry's," of Petone, ,vho marclied to Lower Hutt the other lay, and smashed every lamp on. tho ivay. The argument that we must axm to lefend ourselves from Germany (our only to?) is met bv the known fnct tliat the German Socialists intend to strike if war is declared. T hope that war will be do:lared, and England and Gorman trade unions join in paralysing all transport. Iliat is the only way now to get this rampant spirit of militarism in hand again.—I am, etc., NEMO. August 2G, 1911.