RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 716, 16 July 1929, Page 18

RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE

PRESBYTERIANS PRESS CLAIMS CABINET ACTION URGED Press Association DUNEDIN, Monday. At a meeting of the Public Questions Committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand today the result of the visit of the deputation which waited on the i Minister of Defence, the Hon. T. M. Wilford, in Wellington recently was | discussed. The following resolutions were carried: (1) The committee is gratified to recognise the assurances which have been given to the deputation by the Minister of advances toward a settle* : ment of the existing difficulties in re- | gard to applications for exemption on ! the ground of conscience from the proi vision of compulsory military training, | particularly (a) the Minister’s state- ; ment that no denominational discrim--1 ination shall be shown in respect of | conscientious objectors, and (b) the Minister’s undertaking that pre- | scriptions of alternative service shall be gazetted and published in a regular manner. i (2) It is resolved that this com- | mittee shall immediately approach the 1 Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, with j the request that he bring the whole matter before his Cabinet, in order that the sentences imposed on Alan M. Richards and Alexander Miller be reviewed as early as possible. (3) That the presbyteries of the Church be invited to take action. along similar lines. (4) That the committee welcomes ; the prospect of impending measures | which should bring the Dominions into closer co-operation with the move- ' ment for world peace.