MILITARY TRAINING CAMPS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 260, 30 July 1919, Page 7

MILITARY TRAINING CAMPS

COUNCIL OP CHURCHES' ATTITUDE

(ByTelegraph.-Speoial Correspondent.)

Chnstchurch, July 29. At the annual meeting- of the Christchurch Council of Churches last night the subject of the proposed four months' military training camps was again dis-

Ihe'chairman '.the Rev. J. J. North) said the attitude the council had taken up with regard to the matter was an exceedingly moderate one, and there had been no. hysteria at all on the subject, the proposals to increase military preparations were untimely, and therelore to be reprobated. The Dominion, in a recent leader, had taken seriatim exactly the position the council lind taken, without exception. The article deprecated the taking of young men into oamp because of the moral danger to them, and it hunted Sir James Allen 'from his "nest" of increased physical efficiency,' remarking that this desirable *nd could be bettor obtained through the of the Senior Cadets and public schools. ■ The Dominion also supported the; attitude taken by the council towards the League of Nations. It admitted that force might have to bo used in the future, but not such force as necessitated the overwhelming armaments of the past. At a recent debate at. Victoria College the' students, by GO to 1. had pronounced in favour of disarmament. Labour's view towards the matter was similar, and that of the farming community very much tho same. It was exceedingly gratifying tohavo tho support of a paper such as The Dominion, which was one of the most influential' papers in Now Zealand. "The fact 36 we are standing before a Defence Minister who is military mad," said Mr. North, "and not long ago he said to mo that-there was so much lawlessness in tho country'that the. only tiling which could 6avo the country from going to damnation was tho drill sergeant."