The Dominion TEUHSDAY, MARCH 13, 1019. ABOLISHING CONSCRIPTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 144, 13 March 1919, Page 4

The Dominion TEUHSDAY, MARCH 13, 1019. ABOLISHING CONSCRIPTION

Current reports on the subject, while they differ in immaterial details, agree in stating that the Allied delegates at the Peace Conference have decided to so limit tho German Army that the way will be paved for the general abolition of conscription. Should it prove, as seems likely, that these reports arc accurate, the decision reached will be hailed everywhere with thankfulness and relief It is self-evident that the.abolition of conscription as it has been developed ■in Continental Europe, and in some other parts of the world will do more than any other step it is in the power of the Peace Conference to take to safeguard peace and banish war from the world. The Allies, as news stands, propose to cut down the German Army to a strength of about 100,000 mensuch a strength as will enable it to act as a police and frontier-guard-ing force. They propose, also, to insist that this restricted Army shall be enlisted on a voluntary basis, and 1 that the period of service shall be twelve years—this in order to prevent Germany from training large numbers of soldiers under a short service- system. Imposing additional safeguards by restricting instruction in the art- of warj and limiting the production . of war material and 'the calibre of artillery, the Allies will realise in a definite, sense the aim they kept steadily before them'throughout the war—the destruction of Prussian militarism. At the same time such measures effectively enforced on Germany would undoubtedly make it possible to abolish conscription in all countries, and cast off a great part of the terrible burden of war preparation which has too long been imposed _on_ the world. Conscription has become so much a, part of the day-to-day life of European countries that nofj long aco its abolition would have seemed almost unthinkable. ' Its attendant evils have always been recognised, however, and the grim teaching' of this war was the last thing needed to ■ demonstrate that it is a mon- ] strous growth which, in the inter- ) csts of human welfare, cannot' too soon be eradicated. Prussia must responsibility for developing conscription to the point which meant the arming of whole nations, and for that reason the reduction of the German Army to a minimum, even if it had not been employed in furtherance of the most unscrupulous attack upon the liberties of the world of which history has any record, would be an eminently juit and appropriate first step towards freeing humanity from this terrible incubus. It is true that "tho principle that every able-bodied male, isliable to be called on for the defence of the State dates from the earliest times." It is true, also, that conscription on the modern plan was first adopted in France in the'time of Napoleon, and'that the action of France compelled' other nations, for the time at least, to follow suit. But it seems reasonable to regard the conscription which was instituted in France under Napoleon as an,attempted adap- | tation to extraordinary circumstances—a departure which', if decision had beon left to Franco alone, would in all 'likelihood have been temporary. • In Prussia, on the other hand, the system was developed methodically and in cold blood, to the point at which the strongest possible army became available for purposes of aggression. _ Ever since the character of her military policy became evident Prussia has set the pace in military preparation for all Europe, and even if this war had not set the seal upon her infamy she would have to bear all the odium that such a record connotes. No one is so ignorant to-day as to believe that a system whicn turns the greatest possible proportion of the able-bodied manhood of nations into soldiers makes for their security and welfare. _ Germany alone among nations insisted, in a deliberate spirit of aggression, upon carrying this system to its logical conclusion. Her own perfected preparations for war. and the relatively unprepared state of the nations she attacked, and even of her own allies, will stand'for all time as conclusive evidence on the point. It is evident from the cablegrams that the British Prime Minister has taken a leading part in bringing about the decision ; to reduce the German Army to an ' extent which will permit the general abolition of conscription. Mr. Lloyd George's attitude in regard to thesis vital questions was made absolutely clear during the election campaign at the end of last year. At that, .time he stated that: "The nolicy of the Government i? to abolish conscript armies in this and every other country, and they hope to able to accomplish this at the Peace Conference." In his election speeches he declared that it was j the existence of great conscript ar-1 mics on the Continent of Eurowj that inevitably rushed the world ' into war. I

If you want peace (he said), if you want permanent peace, if you want to prevent the horrors of this war being repeated, you_ must put an end to conscript armies on the Continent of Europe. . . . Germany, at the beginning of this war, had an Arinv, I think, of about fivo millions; Austria had one of three or four millions; Russia one of about six millions; Turkey one of two millions; and oven Bulgaria had one of a million. ... Is it conceivable that in nnv Pence Conference wo aro goinff to allow these countries to go on organising armies of millions against their neighbours again? If we are, tlion nil I cnn tell you is that the Peace Conference is a farce and a sham. The first thing to be done, believe me, is to prevent a repetition of the blunder.of the past by making it impossible for these great conscript armies to exist in tho future, and if anyone goes to the Pence Conference, feeling Hint this cannot be dons then all I can say is he is not fit to go there as a representative.

Mr. Lloyd George did not state the casetoo strongly. A decision to permit conscription to continue would unquestionably imply despair of establishing stable conditions of peace. No doubt in pressing for the abolition of conscription the British Prime Minister had to encounter serious opposition from France and Italy, not because these _ countries are opposed in principle to the limitation of armaments, but rather because they fear the dangers of the transition period in which vast numbers of trained soldiers will _ be available, even though conscription, and armies on what has come to be called the Continental scale, aro abolishod. These dangers are real, and must bo offset

by all possible safeguards, but this is a case in which the right course for nations situated as are Franco and Italy is, undoubtedly, tho bold course. The alternative to the abolition of conscription simply will not bear contemplation. Before the war the burden of armaments and military preparation had become almost unbearable, and if the old conditions were re-established the breaking-strain would soon 1 be reached. Needless to say, Mil. Lloyd George's demand for tho abolition of conscription goes hand-in-hand with a determination to insist upon the right of maintaining the British Navy at tho strength it needs to safeguard the vital seacommunications of the Empire. This is in every way just and logical. The British Navy is not in the class of armaments which provoke war and endanger peace instead of making it secure; it is cs-" sentially a defensive force, and could only become a weapon of offence in the same' category as the European conscript, armies if Britain attempted to permanently establish such an army. As Mr. Lloyd George himself has said, the Navy cannot go to Berlin nor up the Balkans. A general limitation of land armaments and the reduction of the German Fleet to trivial proportions may justify some'limitation in strength of the great seaforce to which we look for protection, but in any conditions which can now be envisaged it must be maintained at such a pitch of power as will enable it to adequately police and protect sea-highways reaching round the world. So maintained it will in every way forward instead of hampering the great developments in peace which the abolition of conscription will make possible.