COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 90, 18 April 1911, Page 7

COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

10 THE EDITOR. Sir, — I have read the letters from "Anti-Conscript"-and "A True Briton," and I find these evidently young writers' objections to compulsory military training rather amusing. 1 can agree with them if they say that they do not see the necessity of a defence force in New Zealand, but I cannot agree with them when they say that it will do away with their liberty, it will knock out of them every manly quality, the race will be deteriorated, and so on. I think that the military training will have or ought to have just the opposite effect on the young New Zealander, of whom the majority in the highest degree are wanting to learn some discipline, and how to be- ! have themselves. Perhaps the future military shows on Dominion Day and on j j other occasions will be 'less of a farce j than it has been hitherto. Perhaps we could be spared from, seeing these young men coming along the street with both hands at the bottom of their trouser pockets, the hat or cap at the back of their neck, the pipe hanging in the one side of their mouth, if they are not whistling. The late Governor, Lord Phinket, said on one occasion that he did not believe in the German civility, but that he did not think that the young New Zealander's "Hallo" to a lady whom he met in the street was quite up-to-date. Though lam not a German, I have been under the compulsory military training, so I can speak from experience, and I can state that I to-day — that is 25 years after — look back to that time as the best period of my life, and I still value the educational and physical advantage of the service. W T e were under the strictest dicipline, but were not treated like dogs or bullied as the two writers think to be essential. "Anti-Conscript" is of opinion that, if conscription gets started, New Zealand will no longer be the free country it at present has the reputation of being. The school children can say just the same, and the next thing will be that also they will have a voice in the government of the country to decide whether they shall go to school or not. With regard to this often mentioned "free" country, I never saw how that adjective could be justly applied, where there are so many restrictions and where we any day may expect a new law passed telling us what time to go fo bed. — I am, etc., CIVILITY. Wellington, 15th April, 1911.