CASE FOR CONSCRIPTION

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5298, 10 January 1947, Page 4

CASE FOR CONSCRIPTION

r i y-ROM time to time the cables | j have conveyed the news of 1 J the efforts that are being made at Home to bring the living ! conditions and pay of the armed i services into line with the j higher standards now obtaining j in civilian life. The supreme I necessity for this arises from | the twin facts that the demands j of industry have left no surplus ' of manpower from which the Army in particular largely ; obtained its pre-war personnel, and that modern warfare re- | quires not only "good physique, 'but a very specialised training that can only be imparted to people of at least average intellij gence. The British Government ; is committed to a policy, at least | in the meantime, of universal | service but none of~the Domin- ; ions has announced details of how they proposed to meet their ! obligations. There is a large ; body of poiitical opinion that is ! unailerably opposed in principle j to peace-time conscription, but i the implications of the present i world set-up are so obvious that | it is very unlikely that there j would be serious- opposition to : its enforcement, excepting, perJ haps, in Canada. | Britain's plan is to keep her- ; self in readiness to ensure her j safely and to do her part in the maintenanee of world peace .through a group of nations strong enough to keep it. For the United Kingdom alone, the hurdon is intolerable. Of the white population of the Empire, one-third is in the Dominions. Britain has not two-thirds qf its resources and the strategy of . the Imperial General Staff is to draw the arc of defence as widely as possible. It is not yet ; clear what regions will be vital | to the Empire life-line and i current poiitical exigencies tend to obscure the issue, but it is I self-evident that Australia and i New Zealand will have a more important role to play in the future than was envisaged ten ( years ago. They and the rest I of the members of the British Commonwealth are not commit- : ted in advance to any policy that i Britain may adopt in any particular part of the world, nor to , share in the minor, episodic clashes that may arise from it. Nevertheless, it seems certain that any- great conflict will be brought about, not on national 1 issues, but will be a world clash ! 011 quarrels that have' defied all ; attempts of the United Nations i to effect a settlement. How I futile it will be to go about the j business of farming and training i the nation from the beginning in ; such circumstances was brought | home sharply and painfully on i every day of the six years' con- : flict so recently ended. In the ' event of another war, New Zea- , land will have a fine nucleus of • an Army and Air Force— we ! cannot hope to build ^nd mainj tain a Navy of much greater ' proportions than the existing | ships that fly the New Zealand , Ensign — but these cadres will be of little avail if the country •• i is not in a position immediately : | to expand them with men who j i have already had a fair amount ! i of service experience under com- 1 ! bat conditions. No one can say [ ! when a crisis may emerge and | | so it behoves the Government to ; announce as early as possible the broad lines of its proposals I for keeping the Domlnion in a state of preparedness, even j before a complete Empire j scheme has matured. I