MILITARY SERVICE BILL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2794, 12 June 1916, Page 6

MILITARY SERVICE BILL

PASSED BY THE HOUSE

BIG- TASK ACCOMPLISHED

HUGE MAJORITY

•A. PATRIOTIC DEMONSTRATION

- Tlie,,biff task which necessitated the eaily* calling-, of Parliament is done, or almost' done. 'I'lio Military. Servioo .Bill was (l pased .by the House early on. Satuiv ~ day'morning; by-the huge majority of 41 votes,.to it, or, counting in the pairs, 46 vote to .6., Tho .vote, would Jiave been a bigger one^but,for.the lateness of tho liour, maiy,. members having, long sinco gone home to bed. The. passage of the Bill was assured, tKey bad recorded their opinions in speeches aid the past divisions, so that there was no coercive . reason for staying on. l duty. The maximum 6trength at any time of the Opposi. tion was seven, but the active-implacable opponents were' only. five. Of the other two, Mr. Fletcher contented himself .with . voting against -the Bill, taking no part in the obstruction,, and Dr. ThacKer, who • also did not take part in the , obstruction, lost patience with the obstructors, and, it ia said, withdrew, his opposition, to the .Bill. He did not vote in the last divi- . sion. The Bill may meet with some opposition in the Upper House, but it will : pass of a. certainty., , The Mast speakers in tho debate were ■ Messrs. H. G. Ell, J. Payne, and C." A. : Wilkinson. ' _ . . . The Minister's Speech. Tho. Hon. J*. Allen rose to reply at 2 p.m. He. first, of all expressed his gratitude to honourable- members for their method of dealing with the Bill, and esV specially for the care and attention they '.bad given to the Bill in Committee. He thanked them. al6o for their kindly references to himself. It tad been said, he ; continued, that' the Government in . introduoing this Bill had no mandate from the people. But all save 8 per cent, of the members of the Houso of - Representatives 6iipflorted the: principle of the- Bill, and ■ lie thought that the House could fairly bo-taken as representing the opinion of the people of the oountry. He 1 did not believe that' more than 8 per cent, of the people of New Zealand were opposed to the Bill. Those opponents of the Bill . had no doubt taken; up their, attitude with.'all' sincerity, bat they were misled, and worse than that they were mislead- ... ins- It'was an attitude that would lead to dissension - among - the people, and if there-ever was a time when we wanted unity -it; was bo-day. The Religious Objector. Thei member for Christchurch. North, one of the strongest supporters of the Bill, had, yet made certain objections to llio Bill because it did not provide for "" exemptions for. religious and conscientiy ous objectors. He (Mr. Allen) had done . what-he'could, to assist tho conscientious objector by submitting to tie Committee , a provision to allow'the appeal boards to consider religious scruples as a legitimate cause i for appeal. -A subsequent clause would .have put upon these men ■ exempted upon this groand the obliga- : V! tion-fo render some non-combatant military or civil service. The House objected, to tho clause, and ho must admit ■ that there were many reasons for oppos-. ing; it. Mr. Isitt had referred to one member of the Society: of Friends wlio was willing to give up oil of his income : of • some. ;8700 a year excent the amount received; by_ a. soldier'as. pay.. The spirit ' of self-saorifice was admirable, but he , did not think the principle was good ••• that any man for any motive whatever should be/allowed to offer'monetary, sac- • rifice in'.-lleit of personal sacrifice. This ' would mean that; the man with money would-be able to buy himself off and stay at home, while the poor man. would have to "go. The introduction of such a provision would' have killed the Bill. • This class of exemptions almost" killed Lincoln's Bill. He had a great dea.l of sympathy with the Society: of Friends in. their scruples, but he belioved that the . Bill as drawn would .permit of sensible boards giving consideration to the appeal of the Quaker or of any men who could show that they had/been religious or conscientious objectors for 6ome consider- . able time. People of certain religious denominations were supposed to object to taking part in war, but not all the men in .these denominations were; in fact religious objectors. There were in the New : Zealand Army to-day 73 members of the Church of Christ,-55 Plymouth. Brethren, and 3 Quakers, and-there were others of simiiaT religions. : fio that it could not* be argued even 'that, everyVQuaker. wanted to avoid combatant service. He was sorry, however, that' some provision was not.-made ifor these-people, but ho still ■■■■.-. believed'that -tlie .honest conscientious , . objector -would, be able to put. his case . ; tiefore an/appeal board, and have it sensibly-considered by -a sensible tribunal.. ~ - Danger of; Exemptions. - ■ already said that the experience, of the United States. Government in tho "Civil War 'had' been guiding the . Government very mucli-: indeed. Andone could . not help, noting the failures of Lincoln's measure of 1863, and what hap- • penod/suibsequently. In Lincoln's first - Act provision was made for exemptions, and the exemptions grew to such proportions that finally another Act was passed cutting out.all exemptions except for the mentally or physically unfit, abolishing all distinctions between classes, and - : simply making liable for-service all men - from 20 to 45 years of age. Reforms to Come. ■: Reference had been made in the; debate to the need for certain reforms. He could speak" for every member of the National Government and say that they were all, very anxious to face and deal with evils whicli hindered . lecruiting, hindered training; hindered the making' of soldiers, and hindered the use of, the soldier after he was made. Thero were evils —drink and other things—which the Government were trying to face, and he believed that when honourable members saw the Government's legislation on this subject they would give the Government ' credit at least for making an honest attempt to face these evils.. Administration the Crucial Test. He recognised'the strength) of tho critir cisms of the member for Hutt and the r member for Biccarton as to the importance of good and wiso- administration of the Act. Ho agreed that the succoss of : the Bill depended on administration. Bui' ..the care that had been given to the preparation of the measure by the National Government should be a surety that everything possible would be dono by tho Government to mako the administration of the Act a success.. It was of the ut- ; most importance that suitable men should be appointed to sit - on Appeal Boards. No doubt the Government would make mistakes with these Appeal Boards, but the Cabinet would give its very best consideration to the appointment of these Boards jn order that tho mistakes should be reduoed to a minimum. He believed that it was not beyond the capacity of the Government to set up boards which would reasonably satisfy the country. Here and tliere mistakes might bo made, but so far as the Government could do it, it would'endeavour to make the : Boards perfect. As he had said, the Boards would be civil and not military. He did not say that no man who 'had worn khaki would be appointed to a Board. It might be that a man returned from the front, a business man who had donned khaki to servo 'his country, would bo put on a Board, but he would be appointed as a business man and not as a soldier. In general, tho Boards would conduct their inquiries in ■ public, but there would be instances in which it would be necessary and desirable that tho evidence should not be published.. But the public could be assured that there would be ■ no possibility of ■ evasion through these private inquiries. The Opponents of the Bill. "Now, Sir. I come to those who nave opposed the principle of the Bill," he said, "and I am sorry wo have not been able to induce them to fall into line. We

must expect criticism. Criticism is good for the' National Government as tor any other Government, and wo can't object to tho criticism of these .honourable members, though wo believe their arguments to be unsound. Somo of them are 110 doubt arguing what they believe to bo their faith. Others I have my doubts about. (Hear, hear.) As to tho member for Wellington South, Mr. Hindmarsh, I Have no doubt about his honesty. lam quite sure he moans what lie says, but 1 am not quit© suro ho is satisfied with his position. I think tho member for Wellington South, if he had to go through this time again, would probably taico up a different position,- but ho has put Ms hand to the plough, and he does not like to take it off. J. am convinced from his attitude that Jre is not quite satisfied vith the position in which ho now finds himself/ The member for Wellington South, continued Mr. Allen, had declared that there was no equality of sacrifice. Ho (the speaker) did not pretend that the Bill did give absoluto equality of sacrifice, but it was certainly as near to equality of sacrifice as they could get it. Mr. Wilford: It is nearer than the voluntary system.Mr. Alien: Yes, ifc-is very much' nearer than that kind of pressure which was being exercised before this Bill was introduced. The .kind of public and private pressure which was being brought to bear upon men. to enlist unfair and inequitablej and was productive of tho grossest inequalities. The hon. gentleman was also unfair when he asked how ;lmd the Massey Government replied to. the cry for self-sacrifice. He did not wish to speak of what members of' tlio Government had offered to their country in this time of crisis, but. he had a right to speak of what lie knew, and that was that every members of the National Government bad given all Mo had to tho consideration ot this Bill and to the whole question; had fac<kl all the difficulties and. had | come to the House with a measure that was bound to be unpopular with a certain section of the community. Ho was glad to know that so many members had found it possible to agree with the measure; and had accepted it in the spirit in which they had. The hon. member for Wellington South had allud'id to the questions of pay and pensions. Now, Mr. Hindmarsh had been on the Secret Defenco Committee last year when the War Pensions Bill on mo before it Jf and had expressed this opinion upon it in the House:

"It is an honest attempt to solve an extremely difficult problem. If this was a Pension Bill in ordinary times, one would know exactly, the position and be able to forecast the levy upon the country! but upon an extraordinary occasion like this, one could ' not forecast what tho levy would be in two years' time. That was impossible, and therefore it was necessary, however much we regretted it, to be careful."

Now, said Mr. Allen, the arguments that have been used by the Prime Minister and other members on this side of the House are exactly similar to those used by tho honourable gentleman last year. Then he had-made a remark that he (the speaker) felt perfectly suro was made when he was dissatisfied with the position in. which he found himself. He said the members of the Government had no patriotism. He would say no more about it than this: He was suro the hon. member, did not mean to 6ay it, and when he 6aw it in cold print ho would like to. see it struck out. He knew perfectly well that every momber of tho .Government was patriotic and was giving what he had to give. Too Large a Quota? i He,would refer to only; one remark made by the member for Wellington Central. This was. that New Zealand had offered too large a quota of' men. Without making any comparison between New Zealand and Australia or Canada, ho would merely say. that Now Zealand had not done, what the Motherland had done. We might already have done a. little more than the Common r wealth had done (in proportion), but he was, perfectly confident that there were very few men or women in New Zealand. who would not bo pjtoud to do a little bit' more. Our quota was not too large for the country, and we , wore proud to give what we had to give. (Applause.) New Zealand was tho pearl of tho Pacific, and if our enemies would like to occupy any land in the Pacific they would like New Zealand; He did not say that New Zealand was very much better than Australia or greater than Canada, but it was true to say that wo dW not regret that our quota was a little bit larger tha,n was that'of Australia. We would be proud at the end of the war to bo able to say that it was a little bit larger than theirs. He ventured to say in Tegard to the industries hero that there were plenty of men yet remaining who; were prepared; to do a little bit more than they had vet done And if we failed with tho men he was confident that the women of' tho country Would come forward and do their sharo. ' ;

Volunteers and Conscripts. The' member for Lyttelton had emoted a returned soldier ivho said that volunteers. -were wanted and not conscriots. But what was this Bill for? This Bill wua to induce voluntaryism. The kon. member for Lyttelton knew that behind it there was compulsion, but behind voluntaryism for the last six ir eight months there had been something worse than compulsion, so why should ho object? It he wanted the voluntary principle he had it in this Bill. He had only to adopt a different attitude to that which he had carried out all along, and help the-Government with the voluntary princ pie, and we could carry through to the end of the war with the vduntary eme - J, he honourable gentleman/ ifm I len',_I en ',_ , lla6 n « ver lifted his little finger to holp the voluntary prinr Flf ft, t( > create- dissension right through New Zealand, and eet class against olass. Why he has done thin I dontknw. I do not think it loyal or patriotic to the country in which he lives that he should never lift his little linger or raise his voice to help that country. He says he wants to preserve the liberties won for us by our forefathers In Heaven s name, what are we trying to do in this war but to preserve our liberties? If ire did what'he wants d ° DOthin «- we fight' 1: ®" r forefathers had to Mr Allen: Certainly, and wo have to fight for ourselves. And we are fighting for our liberties. Tho lion.- member, he contmued, had alluded to the American bounty system, -under which men had been found. He would like to put on record what history said of this bonus systern during Lincoln's time. , " It: , «'*> led to the rise of substitute brokers and vampires, who trafficked upon this system-a traflic too vile for respectable men-and also engaged the 'bounty-jumper,' who joined only to get the bounty, and then deserted, to repeat tho trick' elsewhere." "Is this what ho wants to introduco here—let men buy themselves out, and sell themselves elsewhere? No man ev.en among the 1.W.W., would degrade himself to adopt such a system as this. Is the voluntary system to pay a man to go? We are paying our men to go, bnt we will not adopt any such scheme for bounty jumpers." Quoting further, Mr. Allen read: "There was little resistance on the whole to the principle of compulsion, but there was, for example, in Illinois, a steady stream of political poisoning from the debauched newspaper Press. Chief among these was the Chicago 'Times,'- , which tho South regarded as thoir best ally." Friends of the Enemy. "IJiope," said Mr. Allen, impressively, "that the day may never come when any memberof this community in New Zealand, opposed to tho principle of this Bill, and acting as some members have been doing—attempting to create dissension—may be placed in tho position in whicn some of lis may think that they aTe not the best friends of the British Empire, but tho best friends of the Germans." Mr. Payne: Tou should be the last to say that.' Mr. Allen: The honourable member who interrupted me is,, in my opinion, as fond a friend to the Germans in New Zealand as any man in this country. I firmly "Micro that. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Tnvnp: Ha! Ha! I have touched von on the raw. Slackness in Recruiting. Mr. Allen (resuming): He says that this Bill is not necessary because there has

been no slackness in recruiting. "Well, there has been slackness in recruiting—ever sinco November. There lias been a shortage in the camps over since November, but immediately this. Bill was talked about, and especially after the Bill was drafted, recruiting increased, and just exactly as it happened, in America, as soon as the ballot wheel began to turn, voluntaryism hero will begin to succeed again. That is what wo hope will be the result of tho Bill. It has been proved already that it will increase tlio numbenof recruits, and wo shall bo glad to see ourselves reaching the end without compulsion. .Mr. Payne: Hear, hear. Mr.-'Allen: I movo tho third reading of this Bill, hut before concluding I do wish to acknowledge with, great gratitude the very great help that was given to Cabinet by the Attorney-General. ("Hear, hear," from Mr. Massey). Ho personally lias jjiven what he- had to give in tho drafting Of this Bill, and so also haro those members of the Law Drafting Office who have given their personal attention to this Bill: The Bill will undoubtedly go upon the Statute .Book, tint. I hope .that we may not have'to use its compulsory principles. I myself am a compulsionist, or rather I sliould say I believe in organisation for military purposes, and for the general purposes of the country in time of war, but we bate adopted this voluntary principle and have carried it through successfully so far, ami I believe that tho spirit of this, race is such that. the men will continue to enlist voluntarily until the end of the war. Wc may rest assured now,' at any rate, with this Bill upon the Statute Book, that whatever may happen we are in a position to fulfil our obligations to the Motherland. (Applause.) .

■Mr.-Allen resumed his seat at 2.34 a.m., and on a division beititf called the third Teading ■ was carried by 44 votes to 4. The minority consisted of Messrs. Payne, M'Combs, AYebb, and Fletcher, and the pairs werertv the Bill: Sir Joseph Ward and Dr. Newman. Against the Bill: Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh and Mr. A. Walker.

The result of the division was announced at 2.44 a.m., and was immediately'. answered by tho members rising spontaneously in their seats and singing the National Anthem.