Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1917. SOLDIERS AND COMPULSION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1696, 10 April 1917, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1917. SOLDIERS AND COMPULSION.

AT the time of the Australian referendum great interest was displayed (■vary where in I lit* soldiers' vole, lull a prohibition was issued against llie iMiblii-alioii of I lie I inures. Whatever was the Ooverniiienl’s inlenlion in concealing Ihe facts, no good purpose wtis served, says the Auckland Herald, for the prohibition did nol seem to retard the spread oT i'alse statements to the effect that the soldiers’ vote had gone heavily against compulsion. This untruth was circulated in New Zealand, it reached Britain, and in Australia it was boldly announced from political platforms by anti-conscriptionisls. The correct figures have now been announced. They show that 72,300 soldiers voted for compulsory service, and 58,804 against. It appears from a recently-published article on the subject written by Mr (r. Wade, ex-Premier of New South Wales, that the small grain of truth which was magnilied into “a hundred thousand Xo votes’’ lay in the fact that a majority of the volunteers in camp who had not left Australia did vote “Xo,” but among soldiers who had returned wounded from llie war the voting was solidly for compulsion. The figures now announced dually dispose of the claim that the vote from the front was against the securing of reinforcements by compulsory enlistment.