MILITARY SERVICE BILL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2793, 10 June 1916, Page 6

MILITARY SERVICE BILL

THE FINAL STAGE

PRIME MINISTER'S STRAIGHT

SPEAKING

TIME FOR STRONG MEASURES

When the House of Itepresentatives met at 2.30 p.m. yesterday, the Military Service Bill was received from Coinmittoo, and its third reading was moved by the Hon. J. Allen.

Mr. L. M. ISITT (Christchurch North) said there was one very great blot upou the Bill, for the removal of which he would not cease to struggle. This was the lack of consideration given to Quakers, whose religious beliefs forbade them tfiking up arms, although they wero ready to give alternative service. He could not express all the indignation he felt at the contempt expressed by soino members of the • House for some of the noblest, most moral, and estimable men that they had in the communis. The principle of the Bill, he said, had boon consistently opposed by some men who had persuaded themselves that they represented the opinion of Labour. They had assumed an arrogant and irritating monopoly of humanitarianism and sympathy for the working man; and had more than questioned the bona fides of the other members of the House. He believed these men were mistaken in their views, and that their attitude misrepresented Labour and had done its cause infinite harm. He proceeded to refute the arguments of tho Labour group, in detail. Men who believed in unionism yet opposed conscription. The sentimental objection to "interference with British liberty" out "very little ice" when the sword of the _Hun was at the throat of the Empire. Tho cry that the measure was not needed was futile, and the plea that if better .-provision were made for married men conscription would not be. necessary was besido the mark. It was wholly wrong to allow married men to go while 40,000 single men wero available. Tho demand for increased pay for the soldiers was not supported by the men themselves, for he had personal inquiries. It was no good- harping for the righting of ecohomio wrongs when our first and only duty was to send men, men, and men.

"Tradition" No Safe Guide. Mr. T. M. WILFOItD pointed out that tho Bill did not abolish voluntaryism. It, however, aimed at securing tho men, and Baron Sonniuo, tho Italian statesman, had declared that he who hindered the supply of men to the Allies was an ally of Germany. The guns of the enemy had swept to tho winds all preconceived notions and opinions as to traditional liberty. The Bill was the antidote to unpreparedness. Men had to be secured or elso we would become a conscript appendage to Germany, with that junkerdom which we detested. For this reason compulsion -was absolutely necessary. The Appeal Board was tho pivot upon which the success of tho BilL depended. That Board, must consist of men of capacity, men of tact, men ofjudgment, anil men who could, nou De swayed. Unsuccessful men there would cause the Bill to be cursed and tho Government to be wrecked. He favoured publicity for the hearing of all appeals. Tho Bill' did not endanger tho liborty of tlio subject., What was endangered was the liberty of the slacker to evade his national obligation—a very different thing. This war had now become a crusado in which before peace came tho whole world would be engaged. Every right carried, with it nn obligation and the rigiht to live under the British flag carried, with it tho obligation to servo that flag. The country was clamouring for this Bill—tho p only just' and equitable way of meeting the position. Ho disagreed with the plea 1 * for tho exemption of Quakers. In France 20,000 ecclesiastics were fighting for their country, and no.--0110 should shrink from doing the samo thing.

Faults in the Bill. Dr. A. K. NEWMAN (Wellington.Hast), said ho thought' the Bill 1 would.'be 1 'im-' proved if tho Government would mako provision in it for the setting up of a central tribunal \yhich could hear appeals from local tribunals. This was. found necessary in England, where the; central tribunal did useful work in. dealing with doubtful cases. One of most serious blots upon tho Bill was thiat giving to 1-100 or 1500 policemen "tho right to run a man in at their own sweet will." Ho admitted that 6ome sufficient provision should be mado for the en-, i'orcement of the measure, but the power given to the police was 'far too wide. He expressed' impatience with the socalled religious and conscientious objector, declaring that some mep who did. not want to go to the war would escape' under the clonic of religion, if any exemption were granted. This Bill was de-. manded by the country. In the House, in division after division, there was a majority of .12 to one .in favour of tlio Bill. Such a record there had never been' ill; the House before concerning any Bill of'importance. He warned the Minister, of Defence that if men-'wero rejected, for bad teeth a great number of men would; escape from service. They could not be: -impelled to have their teeth done at their own expense. He knew, of men who had come away from .the recruiting office 1 in high glee bec-auso they had been l'e-. jected for bad teeth. ,Those.' men would tako good care' ~ that.' their teeth wero not repaired until tho. war was o'er. The. proper course for tho Government to follow- was to tako, the men into camp and fix their teeth' there. Generally, ho thought tho in-; structions given to. medical officers regarding the examination of men werei altogether too strict. It Had to Como.- * Mr. C. H. POOLE ''(Auckland 'West): said that in normal times tho Bill could; not live ono hour. Ho , hated the . Bill; with .all his heart, as lie believed every : member in tho llouso hated it, but, like' them, he realised that the Bill was necessary, and he was committed to it. Ho held that men without dependants ought to: be the first men'to'bo sent to tlio war. He accused tho Government of: failure to grapple properly with the cost of living problem. Mr. E. M'CALLUM (Wairau) complemented tho Minister of Dcfonco upon his excellent speech -upon tho second reading of . the Bill, -and his conduct of tho measure in Committee. He intended to support the .third reading.

Mr. Hindmarsh's "Honest Doubt." Mr. A. 11. HINDMARSH (Wellington South) denied that there had been any attempt on . his part to stonewall the measure. Ho did not think the Labour l : arty bad been altogether treated fairly on this point by the Press. . He agreed that a time might como when conscription would bo necessary, but there was a difference of opinion as to whether that time had yet arrived in New Zealand, especially in view of tho position of affairs in Canada and Australia. Yet because that honest doubt, was expressed charges of disloyalty were made. Labour opposed the Bill because it was felt principles wero invoked now which were not invoked at other times. There ,w.as no "attempt to' ' secure equality of selfrsacrifice or -', even, to mitigate possible opposition . by an exposition of the .Governments financial proposals. The Government had first thrust this Bill through. and would then oiler its financial measures. Mr. Hindmarsh attacked tho Government, declaring that its previous bungling'made country chary of trusting it .with 'rtlio big powers asked-for in this Bill. Ho declared that tho Bill had been "sprung" upon tho country, and was being rushed through before the country Teally-.under-stood the proposals. It would be better to depend upon the voluntary, -system, which should bo made more. attractive. Labour considered the job was too big for .the Government and the Minister of Defence, and said so. ' Questions and Answers. Mr. P. C. WEBB (Grey) denied that the Bill was democratic as its supporters claimed. He said that the Bill was not necessary, that compulsion was wrong. Mr. Wilford: Do you believe in compulsory unionism? . •

Mr. Webb: I'm not talking about compulsory unionism now. Mr. Wilford: Don't you think that every miin that is fit should go?. Mr. Webb: Not at all. All men should not go.

Mr. Wilfortl: Don't yon think that every fit man who is not needed hero should go?

Sir. Webb: No; 1 think that at this stage of tho game that man has. a.right to please himself. Mr. Webb went on to refer to another question, on which his views may be summarised in ono sentence of his spfech: "If conscription of wealth is confiscation, then what is conscription of life but murder?" A Prophet Justified. Mr. H. POLAND (Ohinomuri) said ho had not previously deemed it necessary to speak on the Bill, because ho had last year stated his conviction that conscription ought to 1m introduced. Ho still believed that the Government should liavo asked Parliament to pass the Bill then. Conscription was the only proper and satisfactory and fair solution of ,the recruiting problem. No longer would it bo nossible to have side by side families absolutely depleted of men and boys, and other families from whom not ono man had gone. It was absurd to say that thoro was no need for the Bill.. Every possible means had Wn tried to ihduco men to go to tho war. With extreme difficulty onough men had been obtained, and soino would not go until they were compelled. Ho did not specially approve of the present Bill; he thought there should have been general compulsion, tho only fair democratic system. Ho did not believe IT-? Labour was opposed to conscription. What Labour did fear was that in tho administration of the Act tho poor man would not get from the Appeal Boards tho same consideration as the rich man He urged strongly that tho pay and pennons of soldiers ought to be increased. MINISTER OF FINANCE SPEAKS. SIB JOSEPH WARD (Minister of Finance) said that as he was unable to l>o present at the second reading of tho Bill he thought ho ought in justice to his constituents to say something about it. h H K U i /m 0 P rehn »nary work of tho Bill had fa en upon, the Minister of Defence and the Attorney-General. It was levised line by line by Cabinet, and Cabinet made some alterations in it, The Bill was very carefully considered. In view of this lie took strong exception to the behaviour of those five members onposed to the Bill who substituted taunts tor argument in attacking the Government. Ihey had suggested that the members of the Government wero guilty of dreadful crimes seeking to pass into law proposals which would be extremely oppressive. It was charged against the bovornment that this power given to tho police of. arresting a man without warrant was too wide, that it was something entirely unprecedented. But already there was in the law a provision that a constable could arrest a man with-, out warrant if ho were only suspected of an intention to commit a breach of the l'enje. . It was an insult to the workers of iNew Zealand for these five men to aryogate to themselves the sole right to speak for Labour. Mr. Payne: What about the Labour Conference? Sir Joseph Ward: I say that on a question like this the Labour Conference does not represent the viows of the working men of this country. Ho went, on to say that the proposals of tho Government were not oppressive. The Bill proposed m effect to introduce compulsion if voluntaryism and -the working men of New Zealand did not' say that this was a wrong or. oppressive thing.. War Profits Bogey. Some honourable members wore raising tho war profits bogey, and demanding that war profits should bo. taxed as they were in England. These honourable mem. bers had never taken ; the trouble to work out tho rato of war profits in England in proportion to the population as compared with the war profits in New Zealand. They never took tho troublo to inform themselves of the. facts, but simply picked up this lip cry and shouted themselves hoarse with it. '

It had been said that tho Bill ought to have been passed a year ago. Ho did not agreo with this view. If the Bill had. been introduced last year tho House would not havo passed it, because public opinion was not ready for it. Tho . need _ for tho Bill was iu>t then so obvious. And when members wore going round the country doing their best to make tho voluntary, system a, success, ■ where' were - those honourable : gentlemen who now said that they wished the voluntary system to continue? Not ono of them did anything to'assist recruiting. . ~ Mr. Payne: That is. quite incorrect. Sir-Joseph Ward: Well, perhaps the honourable gentleman, did! ■; •; Mr. Buick: Ho kept pretty quiet about it if he did. Mr. Payne was silent. Spreading Disaffection. Sir Joseph Ward: No, Mr. Speaker;.in-, stead of assisting recruiting these nieir were doing their best, to cause, disaffection amongst a sectiou .of working men by suggestiug' impossib'lo conditions, urging them not to go .unless these impossible conditions were granted. (Hear, hear.) However, he continued, the loyalty of the mass of the. workers was beyond question, and they wished to see tho burden of service- spread equally; They did not wantto stand by and see the unwilling man, the shirker, escape his responsibilities.; Ho concluded by saying that along with every other : member -of ; the' National Ministry lie took his full responsibility for every proposal in the Bill. ■He supported the Bill because he believed it was the right thing to do, tho honest thing to do, to have an Act on the Statute Book to make it certain that New Zealand could go on doing its duty. He deplored tho readiness of certain people to do their best to aggravate'the disunion which existed already among our people, by raising issues which could stand over until tho end of the war; . . * . A Convert. • Dr. H. T. -J. THACKEIi (Christchurch Bast) said he represented an electorate of .wage-earners, . and at' the first call over 500 men-went—more than went from' any oilier, three electorates in New '.Zealand. Derision, and "Noes" from all quarters of tho House. ~ ■. Dr. Thacker: 1 will stand by that. I speak of what I know, and ,will contest it.with any one in the llouso., When .he came to the House, - he said, he was a pledged anti-compulsionist. He held that it would not be necessary now if better treatment had been extended to the men who were lost through tho channel of temporarily unlit. They should have had receiving camps to facilitate the passage of the civilian into a soldier. Some men could not stand the big concentration camps at the start, and broke down. Compulsion had now become, he admitted, an unrelenting necessity, but ho still .believed that the authorities had not done all they could have done for tho volunteer. Ho predicted they could go to tho New Year without compulsion, but they could not rui» the risk then of being short of men. Mr. M'COMBS said that the members, who opposed it aimed at preserving British freedom. They should not lie charged with disloyalty because they held their own views as to the best way of raising, tho necessary men. He dwelt at length upon the alleged inadequacy of soldiers' pay and tho allowances for married men. THE PRIME MINISTER. A POLICY OF PIi'EPABEDNESS. The Right Hon. W. F. MASSEY (Prime minister), referring to a charge that it was desired to . introduce a system of Imperial conscription, said that he would make his own position perfectly plain. Ho hoped this war would lead -to a policy of preparedness on the part of Great Britain. He did not care what they called it. but this unpreparedness could not bo allowed to continue. If it did continue, there was serious danger that' Britain would fall. . The. member.for Lyttelton. professed to desire the continuance of voluntaryism, but what had lie done to secure its continuance? If all had done as litt.lo the position of this country would not havo been'as good as it .was, and New Zealand would not have led the Dominions

He wished to have tho opportunity nf thanking members for the manner in which thoy had received the Bill. Tt had been fully but fairly discussed, although tliere had been on the part of a very few members stubborn opposition. Those members wore responsible to the people who sent them to Parliament,' and 'to those people they would bo answerable for their actions.

Voluntaryism Has Not Failed. Tho Bill would enable New Zealand to put every ounco of our available strength into tho struggle. It had been

said by opponents of the Bill that the voluntary system had not failed. Ho was glad to acknowledge that voluntary onlistment had not failfcd, although it had very nearly failed "on occasions. However, the introduction of the Bill "had stimulated recruiting, and he hoped that compulsion would not be necessary, and that suilicient men would volunteer until the war- raino Ut an end. Mr. M'Combu: What about Clause 47? Mr. Massey said tl/;it this clause was intended to be put into operation only as a last resource, lint he hoped that the other clause jo deal with families of shirker* mubl be brought into effect at once. I'iir existence of Ihrato families of shirkein, i/i ij-i In jit was .a great bar to wniting, and this bar could not be ajl.oveii j./i remain. Mr. Wilfordi We've j/«j; t/> (inil tho nuoi, and the JOiiser ytw't wait. Mr. Mawey eaj<| it wan true that wo must find tile riwil, awl the number of men wiw lixfi), 'New Zealand would go on winding lliw number of men until tho end of the y/ar iiiilc&h a very serious emergency wm, because let it be understood thai; if an emergency aroso New Zealand woubT do \U duty. Ho was glad to flay that in both men and supplies Now Zealand had done very well, but he did not think that it was a fact that New Zealand had done very much bettor in rospc-ct to men than any other Dominion. Tho Times to Come. Ho thought it was now the duty of every single man without dependants to prepare to go to the front, because he thought thoy would all bo required. The absence of these men from tho country would mako it impossible to keep up our production without organisation. Elderly men, who had retired from active work; wero back in harness again working hard; It was tho duty of these men and the youths not yet of military age to do their best to keep up production. Presently we should have to call upon the women, . and they would, he know, respond willingly. The organisation was gradually working up. Strong Measures. A cry was raised about taxation of war profits. To tho men. who demanded that wealthy men should be taxed, he would say that if the war wont on for a very few years there would be no wealtny men in Mew Zealand. Sir. Witty: Nor anywhere else. Mr Massey said that some honourable members had demanded strong measures. Was not the.Bill a strong measure? He ventured to say that it was tho strongest Bill that had ever been introduced into any Parliament in the world. And as for other measures Now Zealand would do its duty, whatever that entailed. The strong measures would como when they were needed. The Government would stop at nothing. ■ Mr. Wilford: I wish I could think that. Mr. Massey: The honourable gentleman's name is Thomas, and Thomas was always a doubter. (Laughter.) Mr. Massey said that the effect of the Bill would be great and widespread. It was being discussed in the, English, Canadian, ana Australian papers, and ho believed, the Bill and tho criticism of it would have an effect on enlistment, which would bo felt in other countries besides our own. The Bill had gone virtually through the House by a majority of ten to one, and ho believed. that in favour of the Bill there was just as Lig 'a majority of the people. A Warning. Ho warned those men to beware who were going about the country raising .objections to the Conscription Bill. He was not speaking of members of Parliament specially, but there were people in tho community who were doing their level best to stir up industrial trouble and industrial uniest throughout New Zealand. He did liot think they would be successful. He thought rather than the common sense of members of the public would keep them on the right track. All the same, he protested against these doings, whick were no credit to the people concerned.

Minister Complimented. Mr. G. WITTY (Riccarton) urged the Government to devote' special attention tip tho Composition of the Appeal Boards. 'Mr. Massey: They will be composed of the very best-men wo can find. Mr. Witty" said that if the-Government set up good boards, and stuck, firmly to its policy of giving exemptions to no one, rich or poor, all opposition to the Bill would disappear. Ho cmplimcnted Mr. Allen upon, his conduct of the Bill, and • especially,upon 1 the manner-in which hehad received. the suggestions of honourable members. It was a very difficult and a very drastic Bill—a Bill requiring courage in the Minister to bring it down and force,it through. He-would vote for the third reading of the Bill: " Hard Words. Mr. W. T. JENNINGS (Taumarunui) said he was astonished at the modesty of some of tho Labour members, who claimed that'they were only people' to represent Labour. 'He had done, his part in the fight for Labour, and in the days when to fight for Labour, was not so easy lis it-was to-<lay.- In those days Labour' men contrived .to fight for their rights without being offensive, and -he regretted that inon calling themselves tho presentatives of; Labour : were so offensive in their language. In the House in the course, of tho last few. days he had-heard linen ~ called "curs," "pro-Bora's," and other iiames. He : hoped' that- Labour would; yet find representatives who . would not be offensive in their ; speech and action.; ■ One Defect. > v Tlie Hon. G! ,'W. for Internal Affairs)'said that ho thought that, if- the Bill had one defect—and referring to this he knew the 'Minister would excuse him—it was that, it did not sufficiently recognise the fact" .that.'New. Zealand is a producing and industrial country, and that it was j'iist'as important that we should : provide food for'the soldiers of. tho British Army as-,it was necessary ■ tliat a largo number of the British" population - should"bo engaged in tho manufacture of munitions. He hoped that it. would yet bei possible 1 to exempt certain classes .of. men-' who wcro- necessary; to the country,'.,'withput,submitting those inen' to the ignominy of an inquiry by the Appealßoard. And tho time was coming wJieii we shoidd have to organise for industry as well as for war. - Mr. 11. FLETCHER (Wellington Central) stressed the importance of the work of the -Appeal Boards! , He, intended to vote against tho third reading of this Bill. It had nothing to do with anybody—it was because of his own desire, and because lie had always been against conscription, for which ,he had a horiro'r: He believed' that if the Government 'had dono its part properly thc-ro would have been a sufficiency of volunteers. He liad no direction from-his constituents as to how, to vote, but he thought that oil such a subject as this the Government should have had a mandate from tho country before passing such a measure. . 'Ho said that Jfew Zea-, 'land had : been too generous iu her offers of men to go to tho war,, for ho feared that the task she had undertaken might prove to be beyond her powers. Mr. R. W. SMITH (Wsimariuo) supported thofßitl. He attacked the Labour members vigorously for thpir opposition to tho measure.

Sure to Win. The Hon. A. M. USEES /Minister of Muntions and Supplies) said that every ounce of our strength and endurance was required to win the war. .The struggle was now plainly one of attrition. It was surely better to have compulsory service for'(i short period under tha British flag than to -nave compulsion for n long time under German ride. (Hear, hear.) ' (Left sitting.)