People Should Decide Issue of Conscription

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 7

People Should Decide Issue of Conscription

Mr. Barnard Replies to Mr. Downie Stewart CAN GET THEM VOLUNTARILY Per Press Association. HASTINGS, Dec. 22. “Mr. Downie Stewart is either too naive or too subtle for me when he in quires: ‘lf it was unnecessary to con suit the people about going to war, why ; consult them on the lesser issue as to how to fight the war, ’ * * said the member for Napier, Hon. W. E. Barnard, yesterday. “Mr. Forbes and Mr. Savage have both said on different occasions that when the Empire is at war New Zealand is at war, but there are varying intensities of warfare, and, when it comes to a question of driving the young manhood of the Dominion overseas, I think the people of New Zealand should first give a mandate for it. “It is up to those who see nothing but virtue in conscription to convince the public of the case for it and not to try to dragoon them into it. It seems strange those who get into a frenzy over the powers taken by the Labour Government in dealing with imports and exports are often tho very people who hysterically cry to tho Government the;* condemn to conscript for war purposes the flesh and blood of the young. Is not life more than meat and body than raiment? Mr. Downie Stewart is not a hysterical person. If there is one thing we must all try to do to-day, it is to keep our heads cool and hearts free from unholy passion and prejudice. “He suggested that my personal refusal to decide conscription for the men and women and children of New Zealand might be criticised as irrational, but one finds from time to time that one’s intuitions are often sounder than the results of an elaborate process of reasoning. However, my points are that I believe we can get men voluntarily if we go the right way about it, which wo are not doing the moment. In this connection Mr. J. A. Lee, who has just been relieved of his official post, could do splendid work. Indeed, there is no man in the Dominion with better credentials or greater ability for the task. “My second point is that the ultimate decision on conscription should be the voice of the people ascertained through a referendum. I need not traverse Mr. Stewart’s deductions about spinsters and bachelors, because they do not seem to be connected with the argument, and in any case take me further afield than is required on the eve of Christmas. My object in talking was to inform my ccnstitutents of my views on a vital matter.”