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Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 11 February 1916, Page 3

WHILEit is our endeavour to give correspondents every facility for the free expression of their opinion, it should be borne in mind that the views expressed do not, necessarily, reflect the opinions of the Editor.

(TO THE EDITOR.) Sir, —In further reply to Mr Melling. I wish to say, that the point I elaborated in my first letter is still unchallenged. He admits that Labourites are the Champion Compulsi mists, but tries to justify their attitude by setting before us the position they occupy with regard to their supposed enemies, the capitalist and makers of bogus unions. Not being interested in unions, except matrimonial ones, this does not appeal to me at all except in as far as it backs up the position I take with regard to compulsion to serve in war time. Mr Melling says in effect that, in face of the enemies genuine labourites have to fight in the persons of wicked emplo>ers and bogus unionists, they are justified in using compulsion to gain their ends. This is exactly the position that people take up with regard to compulsory service in the present war. The enemy has shown himself to be altogether beyond the pale of civilisation, to be morally below the lowest of the beasts, a spoiler of churches and a violator of women and girls. His bestial orgies have been so frightful, that it is not possible to describe them, and it the bounden duty of every 'right thinking Britisher to offer his life, if need be, to bring about such a state of affairs that these violations of the laws of hutnanity should become impossible in the future, and, if some Britishers are slow to make up their minds as to their duty, ( then a little compulsion will do no harm. It does not hurt the volunteer, because he is willing, and will not wait to be compelled but it will be a comfort to him to know, that his shirking brother will be made to do his duty whether he will or no. It is an axiom all the world over, that it is justifiable to

compel a man to do right and as there is no question whether it is right for the strong to help the weak, the down-trodden and the ill. used, there can be no doubt that we are justifiably in the war, and are bound by every consideration to prosecute the war to the bitter end.

I think it most unkind of Mr Melling to disillusionize me as to his opinion of my cleverness. It has been a severe blow, but I will try to bear it with accustomed resignation. I regret that practise has had no apparent good effect on his guessing powers, for he is as far as ever from picking my connection with trades unions. As a matter of fact, he is not even on the target, much less scoring a bull's eye. Mr Melling would like me to oxplain something about motor cars. I am sorry I cannot oblige, as they are vehicles I know little or nothing about. Would he please quote my words as to al) sections making due sacrifices towards the heavy war expenditure ? If any such statement was credited to me, I shall have to have it out with the printer’s devil, for only one of the demon tribe could ever have twisted my writing into such a shape. Mr Melling says the Germans have not reached the I7in. shell stage. If this is so, he must have a much more intimate knowledge of the Germans than I have. My information is culled from the daily papers which have frequently mentioned the presence of 17 in. siege guns on the French front. Of course, he may have inside information. Mr Melling continually tries to drag in some small issue about individual trades unions. By this time he should have learned that I take no interest in such and will not be side tracked by these references. He asks a few straightquestions which I will endeavour to answer. In the first place, with regard to the need for compulsion when 109,000 are willing to serve. I answer that the willingness of one man to do his duty is no excuse for another man shirking, and if the 109,000 had known that there would be 34000 shirkers their answers would probably have been couched in such a way that all these rotters would be brought in willy nilly. His question with regard to the South African War has absolutely no bearing on the point at issue, for whereas, in that instance, the Britisher objected to fighting for his adopted country against his native country, the 34000 object to fight for their native country against their country’s savage enemy. There is no analogy. As to your other correspondent. As practically the whole of his last letter is again a mass of quotations badly quoted, I would just ask him to tell us what book quotes from, so that we may

; read it in its original setting, and | so have a chance of understandI ing it. He tries to make me say that the mentally cross-eyed people spoken of in my first, are able to see things from a different and and better standpoint. What I did say was exactly the reverse. The tail-end of his letter is like one of the multitudes he wrote about “ obscured in the shadow of ignorance,” and as I am “ not possesed of good powers of .perception,” I again fail miserably to grasp the meaning of his letter. It might be merciful to leave me in misery. “NOT ONE OF THE 34000.”