The Chronicle LEVIN. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 19l6. COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FLAXWORKERS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 June 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1916. COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FLAXWORKERS.

The decision of tke Jlanawatu I'laxworkers' Union that it will strike work as toon as the Compulsory Military Service Bill becomes law, i« regrettable. In the present temper ol" Ger- ■ nuny and) Austria is is essentia 1 that tl e British empire's forces be kept np t<> the strength necessary to combat effectively those ol the enemy. Without eompulsioH, this seems impossible of achievement. The Fiaxmill AVorkeri' Union (and tlie union is typical of some other bodies) contends that no one has an equitable right to comoel an\' civilian to take up arms. Theoretically tliis assertion is airguable yea and nay; but the same may be -aid of «Jiy coercions of natives fo defend an Indian village that is attacked by timers. Many Indians are bo set against the idea ol shedding blood (even animal) that they would/ consent to death. Incidentally, however, they make no effective protest against European eportsmen who Is eat-up the jungle and shoot the iions snd tige:s. The spoilsmen, doubtless, fii : the same incidence, to tlie Indian, a; the military man does to a ccrtain type of flaxinili worker, or to certain conscientious objectors. Here and there a. one, wo daresay, would submit to b>* hutcheired by an enemy rather than be forced to attack him; but the great majoritf assuredly would protoct themselves against murderous assault wheresoever it arose. Herein Irs the real germ of the need for c«inpulsorv military service. The militarism u: the Prusso-Austrian combination is an attack upon the life of the world !>oth j bodily and intellectuality, and those who lament to-day the apparent meed for all

fit men to take up arms shoukli rofleot upon the facts that have led up to this gi'oat need. AAHiy Ims Geirmany made so little reai progress «n the path towards ■■eat liberty? Primarily, because the tiltraConservativa constitution mf 'Prussia(imposed, as it is, upon "the major num'ber" of United Germany's population of .seventy millions) restricts tile humanitarian endeavours, and tho struggle for emancipation from military dominance, of the freer-minded men amongst Geirniany's people, rtut secondly—and the second reason is the more important onrs—the present need for compulsory military sen-ice amongst the constituents parts of the British empire springs from our united neglect to encourage the fighters for ciikuumdhtion whose struggles are waged m alien nations. In these days we hear many iui stinted voices approbating some Heterodox utterance by 'ierr Licbiiecht, in the German Reichstag, but in many coses the approbation. Talis fiom lips that three years ago looked upon him with disdain, as they stid do even to-day, upon his like when they happen to be of our own race. Yet it is amongst such peopV, (such political types, that the true spirit of freedom lives and is fos'.eivd; sometimes on strange food and twisted sentiments, we admit, yet better thus than dying out from neglect, as too often proves to be the case ill other political classes. Hadl the proletariat endeavourcrs oi Germany received better hacking from the world at large during the paist two decades the Emperor Withelm to-day had been less of an autocrat and less of -a world menace. It is useless for our own people to blink this fact; there, are in New Zealand, os elsewhere, many citizens whose basic conceptions of tho rights of the people as a whole would fit as well with citizenship abroad as m our freedom-lov-ing empire. These .are existent facts, and facts that should he recognised by all -who value true liberty ; but to contend for them now, with a great war in progress against one of ths greatest military despots of modern times, would be disastrous. This is a phase of the ease that e would commend to all objectors such as the Manawatu Flaxmill Workers' Union, tlow can tliey look for amelioration of present conditions -while the present men. ace of liberty and progress remains our empire's enemy?

"Reinforcements for the Xew Zealand fighting ranks must be obtained. lit! tfiere should be ■no attempts made to overshadow this need by introducing stock objections such as "the insufficient taxing of capital." If capital does not pay its full share of tlie present big expenditures, the Man-awatu Flaxmill "Workers' Union is as mucli to blame far that as the I'Vanklyn Electorate Reform League is : tne united voice of a district or a dominion, in effect, gives that aggregation of people the ful} measure ot liberty or tyranny or liberty-cum-tyranny tliut 't is entitled to. It is a truism ot our own coinage tlint "Progress and time march ever cheek by jowl." and: in elaboration of this we would say that in times of war it is idle to attack a widely-accepted principle. Tlie conscientious objectors mid all other brands of Like sort. should have been up and doing live, ten and 'ifteen yeais ago. Iso, too, was the cuse in regard* to other disputes. When the war ceases it will be time enough to revive or alter procedures. To-day we are faced with the imperative 'need for sending forward -New Zealand's sliare of men for the empire's defence. By comparison with the German empire, it is an empire well worth saving and if any leader amongst tlie Uaxworkers of the XLaiiawtitu doubts this he knows very little 01 the subjects he i 6 supposed! to give a lead upon. The union, as a whole, we feel suire, will not give active effect to the resolution it arrived at last week; there is too strong a basis of fair judgment in tlie' overage aggregation of men to allow «f so fatal a blow being struck a" the basic principles of progress and self-defence in combination.

THE FINANCIAL STATE- » MENT.

( .Nen Zeaiand is to bo congratulated up OA the buoyancy ol her finances as disclosed in the Financial Statement, lead in the House of Kepresentalives last night. The extraordinarily lngu prices paid for our primary prod lets during tfio last iif toon months hadi prepared everyone for a satisfactory Budgot record, but the revelation or a surplus of receipts over expenditure amounting to £2,1d6,0i t is better than even sanguine folk had ijokeu for. The great and rapidly-increasing public debt that is accumulating as the result of cur dominion expenditure upon the war i.s ah uuavuiduble expense, but it is ground tor a feeling of great satisfaction that the Coalition Government has risen to its duty to llie people in this regard, by" iouii'iing sinking funds for all the irar Joans unit havo been floated. In ail (up to May, 191(3) £9,850,000 had been borrowed, and the existing authority given by Parliament last sessiou will allow 0.1 a further €2,150,000 being raised. Doubt- i less r'arliament will increase this amount during the present session, llie Minister of Finance is asking far authority to borrow for £12,000,000 ad.di- j tional to the £2,150,000. New Zealand's expenditure on war is estimated to run to one million pounds sterling per month. A satisfactory feature of tho Budget is the proposal to levy a special tax of torty-five per centum 011 all "excess" profi s made since the war. This is n very substantial measure of the "conscription ot capital" upon which many putucists (leading and negligible also) have been insisting during the recent months. The Chronicle would like to see one proviso added to tho proposal before it is made law: and that is that my taxpayer who becomes liable to 'his tax shall be entitled to rank as part

payment-thereof fctieh sums of money as he has subsci ibed. to Patriotic i'ulitlo. it would ue u graceful) icknowiedgnient by the dominion ot '.lio fact tliat a.-number-of wealthy settlers and citizens have done tlieix duty. (111 some eases more tnan their tl.uly; ;n tliio regard. Objection doubtless will lie raised tlnit to grant this concession wonkt . interfere with the Minister's li-iianciu! estimates, hut the amount invoivod would be infinitesimal by comjjarison • with the amount ot two million pounds sterling that the. special tax is estimated to produce.