Compulsory Service Urged

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 308, 30 December 1939, Page 7

Compulsory Service Urged

Time for Plain Speaking GOVERNMENT SHOULD ACT KATIKATI, Dec. 29. “While firmly believing that party politics should be kept out of New Zca land’s war effort, 1 feel that the time has arrived for plain speaking by public men of the part wo are playing in tho war,” said Mr. F. W. Doidge, M.l'., when addressing an audience of several hundred people at a tarewell function to soldiers at Katikati. “I will not be accused of exaggeration,” continued Mr. Doidge, “when 1 say that loyal New Zealanders are profoundly disturbed by the nature of the response to the Government’s call for men and money. In the last war New Zealand recruited 140,000 men. Hundreds of thousands of pounds were contributed, freely and gladly, to patriotic funds. Why is it that we have, so far, failed to mobilise men or money in anything like the proportions of 1914 f “No one will accuse the Government of lack of sincerity of purpose, but it is handicapped by its background. “4-fter four months’ effort, the result must-be as disheartening to the Government as it is to every serious-minded man and woman in the country. “Are the people of Now Zealand less loyal than in 19141 We know, most emphatically, they are not. Is the cause less worthy f Again, we know it is not. spirational leadership. It is an imperative necessity in such times as these. One essential missing is that of in* It could be found, perhaps, if a decision was taken to broaden the basis of Government. That could be done without the necessity for a political coalition. “But we know the problem of man supply will be difficult to solve until the youth of the country is satisfied that there will bo equality of sacrifice. “Rightly or wrongly, most people believe they know where the slackers are. Compulsory service operates in both Britain and France. Compulsory service would solve our problem here. We are told by certain people that conscription of man-power is alien to democratic government. But these people fail to tell us how they square this view with the principles of compulsory Unionism, on which tho insist. “We are told,” added the speaker, “that the issue of conscription will be decided, one way or the other, at the Easter conference of the Labour Party. “But Parliament—not the Easter conference—is the place to decide that issue, and now that Mr. Fraser has returned I hope the Prime Minister will accede to Mr. Hamilton’s request and call Parliament together without delay.”