The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY Ist., 1916. QUAKERS AND FORCE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1571, 1 July 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY Ist., 1916. QUAKERS AND FORCE

DEALING with the conscientious objectors in a, recent article, Bishop Welldon quotes an incident from the journal of George Fox. A number of Quakers had their pockets picked and they promptly complained to the justices and pointed out the man. “It would scarcely seem,” proceeds Bishop Welldon, “that the founder of the Quakers was wholly averse from invoking the aid of the law —i.e., of force —for the punishment of the thief who robbed him and his co-religionists. But the part which the police play in the defence of personal liberty and property is practically the same as the navy and the army play in the defence of national liberty and property. There can be no sort of doubt in any reasonable mind that, but for the forcible resistance which has been offered by the British and allied navies and armies, the Kaiser would ho master of Great Britain to-day. If the conscientious objectors arc willing to accept that result, they are not good patriots. If they decline to accept it, they cannot well decry or disparage the navy and the army. It can scarcely he more honourable than it is logical that any citizens should enjoy the full henellts which the State assures to them through the armed forces of the Crown, and yet refuse to lake their full share, or any share at all, in the hardships and perils hy which alone those benefits are assured. It appears then that two positions are logically consistent, and two only. One is that all use of force is wrong. But ho who holds that view must be prepared to sacrifice without resistance his property, his freedom, his life, and if need be, the lives of the persons who are dearer to him than life itself. The other is that the punishment of wrongdoing is accordant with the will of God, But if force is right when it is exercised through the police and the judiciary in the life of a. single nation, so must it be right in international life, where the punishment of one sinning nation is indispensable for the welfare of humanity, and the force of arms is the only means of inflicting the punishment.”