SERVICE FOR ALL

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 189, 7 May 1940, Page 9

SERVICE FOR ALL

Enlistments In Armed Forces

EXPERIENCE IN LAST WAR Adoption Of Conscription “The inequities inherent in any voluntary scheme show up more clearly' day by day.”—Eighteen months after the start of the last Great War in 1914 these words were used by the then Minister of Defence, the Hon. J. (now Sir James) Allen, in moving in the House of Representatives the second reading of the Military Service Bill, which provided for compulsory military service. Experience of the voluntary system of enlistment had convinced Mr. Allen that the adoption of conscription in the Dominion would have been wiser right from the time the New Zealand Government decided to recruit men for active service. His observations of 24 years ago are of particular interest today, when many people and organizations are urging pie .Government to introduce conscription and abandon its present policy of relying on the voluntary method to obtain recruits for the armed forces.

When the Military Service BUI was introduced by the Government in May, 1916, .57,592 men had been sent from this country to the front or were in training. Because of the protracted nature of the struggle and the necessity for there being no delay in the dispatch of reinforcements Parliament considered it advisable to pass the Bill. The measure was based on legislation introduced by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War in ;1863. “In 1863 in America the voluntary principle had been tried for soine 18 months, but it had failed,” said Mr; Alien, when referring to precedents for a change from the voluntary to the compulsory system in the middle of a war. “The voluntary principle failed in the United States approximately at the same time that we have reached here in our war — namely, from 18 months to two years after the commencement of the war." Equality' of Sacrifice. At another stage in his speech Mr Allen said: “In my own judgment, the most just, the most democratic—and I emphasize the word democratic —the most scientific, and the surest way to secure the necessary men and to win the war would have been compulsory national service right from the start. That is my own personal opinion. . . . To my mind, there is . .nothing more democratic than equality of sacrifice. Under a scheme of compulsion, every man, rich or poor, has to make exactly the same sacrifice to defend his county- . . . , ' “There is a democratic principle underlying compulsion. The rich man has to come into the ranks alongside the poor, to undergo the training necessary to make a soldier, to go to tlie front, and to fight in the trenches alongside the poorest man in the community. Is there, can;there ■ be, any' more democratic principle than that? . . , We need this Bill in order that we may keep our word to those of our men who have already gone out of New Zealand and are serving at the front. It is the message which we transmit to those brave men who have voluntarily answered the call, and who have fought and are now fighting at the. front. The message, when it reaches them, will inspire - them to further greater deeds, when they realize that the .Parliament and the'people of the country they love to think of as home have put beyond doubt an adequate supply of comrades to stand by them and. to fill the unfortunate blanks that must of sad necessity arise.” No Class Distinction. Similar views were expressed by the then Prime Minister, the late lit. Hou. W. F. Massey. “If there is one thing more than another in which I am satisfied with this Bill it is that it makes no distinction between the millionaire and the man without capital,” said Mr. Massey. “If there is a man in this country worth £1,000,000 —I do not know that we have any millionaires in this Dominion —there is no distinction between him and the man who is not , worth a shilling. I am a supporter.of national service, but not because I love it. I am a supporter of it because I believe it to be a necessity.” The Military Service Bill allowed the voluntary principle to remain in existence, but backed it with a scheme of compulsory military service to enable reinforcement drafts to be maintained at. full strength. The Bill became law ou August 1, 1916, and it provided for compulsory service for men between the ages of 20 and 46. According to the 1919 Year Book, 124,211 men were provided by New Zeaalnd from the start of the war in 1914 to November 12,1918. and of this number 32,270 were conscripted under the Military Service Act.