MILITARISM

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8340, 29 January 1913, Page 3

MILITARISM

To the Editor, "N.Z. Times." Sir I note your comments to my letter in your issue c-f the especially the remark you make that there is some truthin what I said. Tho rest, to my mind, appears to consist of an ounce ot common-sense, and a ton of sickly ,cm, like most of the militarists reasonin"S, together with a plentiful supply of abuse, which I would remind you is no argument, and as far as X am concerned docs not alier my opinion on the matter. You speak of a threatened invasion of Now Zealand- Well, in the first place why should any foreign nation go to the trouble and expense of sending an armed force here at all, if it were not for the fact that they were well aware that we had troox« here also; so that in that case the militarists, by their own actions, would end up by bringing about the very thing which they say they wish to prevent, truly a pierverse proceeding, For instance, why did England ship troops into South Africa to the”.tune of about two hundred and fifty thousand at the time of the Boer war? I don’t suppose it was for the purpose of giving Mr T. Atkins a free trip to foreign parts, but because the Boers had an armed force of about ninety thousand men in the country. And if the Boers fought tho invader with tho idea of defending their homes and dear ones, os you maintain should be done, it certainly had the opposite effect, seeing that a good many of them had their homes burnt down by the British troops, and numbers of their dear ones died in tho concentration camps, all of which would not have happened if they had not taken up arms in the first instance. However, I don’t think that that or any other war was ever undertaken for that purpose, and in any case is one New Zealander going to fight a hundred foreigners? You maintain that military training makes men. It may, but judging by tho doings of soldiers in the Balkans and elsewhere, it would appear that though they may be very decent fellows individually, collectively they are fiends in human shape. The true heroes appear to me to be those who refuse to be dictated to, and who act according to what they think to he right, even though all the world is against them. The question arises, also, if our army is meant for the defence of New Zealand, why is the Minister of Defence speaking about organising expeditionary forces? And surely all right-thinking people must see the folly and madness of training men to murder each other when they would far rather shake the hand of good fellowship, if it were not for their fool rulers and the lying press. If we want defence let ns populate the country fully, and organise industrially, so as to be able to down tools in any country where the war vampires try their games, and thus in time bring about peace on earth and good will towards men.—l am, etc., K.W. January 27th.