ANTI-MILITARISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 21 August 1911, Page 4

ANTI-MILITARISM.

That august body, the National Peace and Anti-Militarist Council, of Christchurch, is not missing an opportunity of extending its propaganda. ft is desirous, so it advertised the other day. of forming a working body in New Plymouth to co-operate in the movement, and to that end is seeking the names of those to whom compulsory military training is obnoxious. It has even gone as far as to send a cable to Mr. Keir Hardie, to whom militarism in any form is anathema, warning intending emigrants to New Zealand the "enslavement" that is before them. What they might have added is well put lin the Pefcone Chronicle. They should have added, it states, that in this country the Government is in the hands of the people, the suffrage being universal; that the Government protects the masses by preventing their spoliation by monopolists; that Government places within the reach of every respectable citizen with a ten pound note in his possession the opportunity of becoming the owner of a freehold section with dwelling upon it; that the Government goes farther than any other Government in making the wealthy pay their proportion of taxation; that the State maintains hospitals for the sick poor; that the deserving poor who cannot work are assisted in some cases by the labor bureaux with work; that the Government maintains inspectors to see that employers do not break the condition of labor awards made in a Court presided over by a State judge; and, to crown all, every decent citizen who reaches the age of 65 years, and is not possessed of means is granted a pension

of 10s a week. These arc some of the benefits of citizenship in New Zealand. Common sense demands that those who share the benefits of citizenship should take upon themselves its duties, and one of these is the liability to help defend the country against .possible invaders. If to be asked to perform citizen's duties in return for citizens' privileges unequalled in any other country in the world is "enslavement," then the youth of New Zealand are (and ought to bej enslaved. If otherwise, the little knots of noisy persons who are now making themselves a nuisance on the anti-militarism racket, would be all the better for a strong dose of some legislative corrective.