NEW ZEALAND DRAFTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1746, 11 August 1917, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND DRAFTS.

A SYDNEY OPINION. POSITION SHOULD BE RE- ' VIEWED. The Bulletin (Sydney) is a strong advocate of conscription. It is also a particularly clear-headed and outspoken journal, well-inform-ed as' to Australaisan politics, and colonial war matters generally. The issue which arrived by the last mail from Australia contains some pertinent comment on New Zealand’s military policy and the agitation for less Ministerial reticence on the subject of this country's obligations to Britain.''' The article.is as follows: — “Having enlisted all the married men who cared to volunteer, and called up practically all the single men eligible for service, (he Maoriland Government sees two things. One is that the ravenous beast of war is still devouring armies, and that if the professed intentions of Parliament as expressed in the Defence Act are carried out, the drafting of married men will soon have to commence. Neither .circumstance is making Government or Parliament feel happy. Two courses arc open —to go ahead to the bitter end; to sit down and examine themselves in the light of cold fact and wider comprehension of what the country is tangled up in—(he wider comprehension that has been gained since the Defence Act was passed. The scheme adopted by .Maoriland rested upon conceptions of the war’s duration, which experience has shoAvn to have been hopelessly wrong. To continue it, without at any rate, being satisfied of the capacity of the country to do it and escape ruin, would be a singular revelation of public mulishness. Compulsory service does not require a nation to do more than it is able to do. It is a rational, expeditious method of raising an army. How big that army should be, and how long it can continue to be reinforced at a Jixed rate must; obviously be determined by llic national strength, the national productiveness, and the circumstances of the hour. On all present appearances the European disturbance is-going to persist for a long time yet. It may be within the ability of Maoriland to keep going as she started. It is possible that it is not necessary, from the military point of view, that she should. In any case the Parliament of the country ought to he put in possession "of information enabling it to decide the matter intelligently.”