SALUTING THE FLAG.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1893, 22 October 1918, Page 3

SALUTING THE FLAG.

The Palmerston , Times, whose editor is one of the recently-elected members of the Wanganui Education Board, commenting in re the recent Board’s action in connection with a Quaker teacher who had conscientious objections against saluting the Hag on certain specified occasions, hut was prepared to cheer it, says:—“We believe in saluting the Hag, but we do not believe in punishing an individual who regards the salutation of the flag as a military symbol. The State itself does not believe in punishing such persons. It has specially enacted that there shall he no religions test for school teachers and civil servants, and it has especially laid down in the .Military Service Ac! that Quakers and adherents of certain other seets who have conscientious objections to military service shall obtain exemption. This'is an enlightened world-wide principle.For ourselves personally we should prefer that there should bo no such individuals as conscientious objectors. We think that in war time every individual’s combatant service should be made freely available to (he State. But it doesn’t matter what wo should like. The fact is that there are such persons, and the fact is also that these persons have, ethically, a great deal of right on their side. Their argument is that war is an evil —that it is anti-Chris-tian. If these people wore in a majority in the world (hero would he no militarism and no wars. We should have that peace for which the whole world is praying and yearning today. In peace time these pacifists are tolerated; in war time they are distinctly out of fashion, oven amongst those who detest militarism and all that il connotes. “To say this is to admit at once that fho world is swayed more by sentiment than by logic'. Many of us delight, for instance, to see that there are valiant individuals even in Prussia who are prepared to take their lives in their hands against Kaiserism, Prnssianism, and the Junker spirit. Our sympathies are with Dr. Liebneehf, who is perishing in gaol because he had the temerity to (ell that the Kaiser in making war upon mankind he was not only the enemy of Germany, hut of humanity. But with our own pacifists we are instinctively out of sympathy, because wo say, and say very truly, that he who is not for ns is against us. But that should not tempt us into reprisals against individuals who cannot for conscientious reasons see eye to eye with us. Tl iis Quaker teacher at Umuimiri, for instance, stands upon a punctilio. lie is prepared to honour the Hag, and to cheer the Hag, but not to salute the (lag, because in his conscience the act of salutation is a military symbol. A minority of the Education Board say (hat he ought to be punished —to he deprived of his employment —because of this punctilio. The existing majority thinks he should not. They, too, are actuated by conscientious motives. They also have the law on their side as nearly as it can be ascertained —tlie law which says (hat there shall be no religious test for State employees. It is quite possible that the force of public opinion will make this Quaker’s position intolerable, and that, educationally, ho will not be able to Had a place to lay his head. That will prove not that the Quaker (i. 0., Christian) principle is essentially erroneous, but that the world lias a long distance to (ravel before ‘swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, ’’ and mankind enjoy the legitimate x’esulls of their labours in peaceful plentitude.”