THE "OBJECTORS"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 49, 21 November 1917, Page 6

THE "OBJECTORS"

WHAT IMPRISONMENT MEANS

MEN WHO WILL NOT FIGHT

During recent months a ecoro or two or JNew Zealand soldiers have been tried by.court-martial in the military camps on charges of Having refused obedience to lawful orders, and after conviction nave been sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. The usual term has been two yetira. Most of ihese men are reservists who have been called up by bnllot and have developed objections conscientious or otherwise, to military service. They have been given the cpportunity to serve in non-combatant branches of tho forces, and on their continued refusal to obey orders, they havo been punished by the military tribunals. Soldiers who lmvo been sentenced to terms of imprisonment in New Zealand are committed to the care of :ho civil authorities, but in the case of "objectors," who present, many varied types, care has been (aken to keep I hem as fains possible from contact with criminal prisoners. The prison officers see Hint they are given hard labour in terms of their sentence, but in view of the f.\cfc that many of (hem have respectable antecedents ilipv are not exposed (o ronlamination by hardened offenders. The work they are required In undertake is not less arduous, though naturally it. is fnfer, than the duty performed by the citizen soldiers whose ranks they have left.

Some nf the military prisoners are at present at TCninff.iroa, near Rotorua, where they were visited last week I>y the Minister of TVfenee. Their number is to lie increased, and it is likely that before lonj; all the "objectors" will bo taken from Hie ordinary prisons and confined in prison camn?. The men are employed at road-making and tree-planting under the supervision of prison warders. Thoy work hard, eat plain food and obey orders, the penalty for disobedience bein? return to the ordinary nrison. 'Ilia men seem cheerful and contented enough, and the. authorities report that, they v-rt well as a. rule. They are more easily managed as a class than tho ordinary prisoners. A visitor to tho prison camp must realise the impossibility of providing full exemption for conscientious and religious objectors without saying; in eQect to every shirker in the country, "You need not tight if you do not want to." The objectors cannot bo classified. Some of them profess religious ecruples and some of them deny that they havo any religion at all. They include representatives of various obscure socta with ill-defined beliefs and skc-tchy organisation. They will not fight because it is against their principles to accept orders from earthly kings, bccaitso wars ought to be prohibited, because Hipy have bteu enjoined to "resist not !*ni'" because ibe battle-grounds are not within New Zealand, and bscuut-a tV.ty could cot briny tlicaisthcs to shed blood. Tb.3 list of .oVijaotioM roight be extended, for the objectors reach their common determination by very mam - different paths. They are vntteil only in thoii unwillingness to share the nation's sacrifice.

In the cfiTly dars tf compulsory recruiting, some baUoted men. -sho refused to undergo training in the camps were placed aboard transports and taken to England. This system has been abandoned in. favour of eince the British authorities have no wish to be troubled with men who will not fight. Britain's own "objectors" number many hundreds, and they hare teen formed into labour battalions, which aro used on road construction and other henvy manual wort of a land useful to the nation nt the present time. "The genuine conscientious objectors do not object to civil service, however arduous it may be," wrote a sympathetic visitor recently. "They feel that their consciences will not allow them to beni orms and ehed blood, but they are not shirking sacrifice, in the service of fho State."