DEFYING THE LAW

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 158, 23 March 1918, Page 6

DEFYING THE LAW

The sentence of two years' imprisonment passed on Private P. C. Webd, M.P., for setting at defiance the military law of the Dominion cannot in the circumstances bo regarded as a severe one. Private Webb set himself to deliberately defy the law enforcing national service. He cannot even claim that ,he_ resisted military service on conscientious grounds. His own efforts to justify his refusal to fight with his fellow-citizens in defence of his country prove clearly enough that he cannot claim to pose as a martyr to conscientious scruples. "Ho was willing," he said, "to go to the front if his constituents said so,-, but they had made •no request of that nature. . , . He personally had not appealed against- military service. His constituents had appealed for him. . . . When he resigned and contested his seat ho made it clcar that he would accept the decision of the electorate an'd would join the ambulance or the mining section." The public probably will be able to estimate Private Webb's extraordinary sensitiveness to the feelings of his constituents as here disclosed at its true value. They may bo assisted in arriving at a correct judgment in this respect-by recalling Private Webb's conduct in and out of Parliament since the war started. He has been shown- every consideration by the military authorities, and has been allowed a degree of latitude that few others have received. But tin his own admission he set himself wilfully and deliberately to defy the law.. He preferred to serve a term in gaol rather than serve his country in 'the field in " its timo of greatest 'heed. ""• '?