The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1911. COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 March 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1911. COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE.

True consensus of matured opinion | in Australasia favours the principle of compulsory military service. Tt :it so logical a proposition (that those who enjoy should strive to maintain) that there is room for a feeling of surprise that a comparatively large minority of the people of these islands still favours the old shibboleth of Volunteering," which largely is a cry raised 'by those who wish to see their more impulsive fellows volunteering for the defence work which they themselves steadfastly avoid. Tho refusal of tho Methodist Conference of Australia, last week, to make a pronouncement against the principle of compnlso.-y military service may bo ,e----garded as a satisfactory of the general advance in

favour of the compulsory syste-n iji Australia, and we confess to a feeling of regret that the New Zev land Methodist Conference has shown itself less open-eyed in regard to the trendi of the times. ft is quite true that there were fond amongst the Australian Mebhofl'st. ministers and laity some outspoken ones who condemned what they termed the general tendency tcv>a/pls militarism : but there was opposed, to tliem a solid phalanx of others amongst the mom'-ers of their conference; and tho opinion was v. e 1 oxprc^,oi by these speak"!s that readiness and ability 10 i.iret- acd repel aggression was the fluty of all citizens. That, we lake it, is a trua conception of or'!;, man's duty. We live in troublous iitiirs. Ihe Mn'isa lion may be quite willing to lie down with the French Inmh, but there re mains to be guarded against the chances of the Russian bear and the German eagle disturbing the peace of the other two. And there are many other possible complications. The times, in brief, a.o still afar from the prophesied period, wherein agricultural operations will be conducted with wrought

iron swords, and it is as necessary to-day as ever ii; was for our men to be ready t>: repel aggression. Further, .if seems to us thai, the principle of iv 'versal military service is the grcii -t lifeguard that could he devised against the risk of unreasoning aggiv • :..,i on our own part. In the old days, when mercenaries were hired for wars abroad, and the loss fortunate amongst the lower classes were cajoled or pressed into army or navy, s-metinios there was a disposition amongst those high in authority to rush their country into hostilities without properly weighiing the consequences. But if we have an Empire-wide system whereunder the son of the banker-is required to take up arms in company with '.lie son of the labourer, and under which the Cabinet Minister and the Southland rabbiter may each have to shoulder their rifles to meet an enier gency; with such an all-compelling system there will bo surety of a. wellweighed and deeply-pondered consideration being given to every belligerent proposition. These antipodean parts of the British Empire havo chosen the better part in their latest military requirements; and if those who are striving in Great Britain to institute the practice of univoisal military service can achieve their cud they will do a thing that must establish more firmly the prospects of the peace of tho world.