DOMINION FORCES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20125, 20 December 1939, Page 6

DOMINION FORCES

CONSCRIPTION ISSUE PEOPLE SHOULD DECIDE RECRUITING CAMPAIGN MR. BARNARD'S VIEW (Pur Press Association.) NAPIER, this day. The Speaker of the House of Representatives. the Hon. W. E. Barnard, in an interview to-day regarding the reported statement made last night at Auckland by the. Minister of Lands, the Hon. F. Langstone. said that it conscription were necessary, which he did not admit, the question should be decided by a referendum of the people.

Mr. Barnard considered that all the necessary men could be obtained by volunteer methods if the right means were used. An almost casual appeal through the press or an oclct talk over the air would not do. Use should be made of returned soldier members of Parliament, who should be invited to play a leading part in the country’s war effort.

He was opposed to the suggestion that every one might be required to live on a soldier’s pay and rations. The soldiers were fighting for democracy and the maintenance of the present living standard. It would be no encouragement to them if the folks at home were compelled to put up with an inferior standard of life. To increase the soldiers’ pay was a better policy than to whittle down the income of the people. The country had not forgotten the bitter experience ot impoverishment which it was compelled to experience a few years ago.