THE TERRITORIALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 11 March 1912, Page 8

THE TERRITORIALS.

"WOE BETIDE WARD OR MASSEY." By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Saturday Night. An anti-militarist demonstration took place in Victoria Square this afternoon, 1 the attendance being well within 500. Speeches denunciatory of the compulsory clauses 'of the Defence Act were made and motions were carried protesting. against the imprisonment of youths who refused to pay their fines, and also protesting against the misrepresentation by the press of the Dominion and by the military authorities of the defence scheme. A youth, who described himself as the secretary _ of the Passive Resisters' Union, said that he had been to the Lyttelton Gaol, and had seen the boys, who were bearing up and were quite well. He added: "Woe betide Ward or Massey, I say (clenched fists), if they continue to inflict this on us. If they put me in ga'ol for the rest of my life I would _ not have anything to do with conscription. They call us cowards. I'm ready to fight anyone. I'm ready for any of the officers at the Drill Shed, but the fight is mental not physical."

FIASCO AT LYTTELTON. Christchurch, Last Night. An anti-militarist demonstration was held at Lyttelton in the vicinity of the gaol this afternoon, but proved more or lesa a fjasco. About three or four hundred people surrounded the orators, and motions on similar lines to those passed at the demonstration in Christchurch yesterday were passed. There was no increase of the police force at the port, and those 'on duty did not interfere with the demonstrators. A large number who went from town by a later train, in anticipation of trouble occurring, were much disappointed on reaching Lyttelton to find matters peaceable and quieit.

COOKE RELEASED. The Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward), who is also Minister of Defence, announced on Wednesday that Cabinet has decided, to release young Cooke, of Christchurch, from gaol, where he was serving a sentence of fourteen days. "'This has been done with the concurrence of the Commandant (General Godley)," explained Sir Joseph. "The Act having been affirmed on a second occasion, there was no desire to vindictively press it further. Cooke Will therefore be released at once." "It has been said that the Defence authorities have persecuted the boy Cooke by bringing him up a second time," remarked Major-General * Godley to a New Zealand Times representative, when his attention was called to the fact that Cooke had been obliged to go to gaol a second time, owing to persistent non-compliance with the Act and refusal to pay the fine. "All I can say is that nothing is further from the wish' of myself or the Defence authorities that men should suffer imprisonment on account of this scheme. In fact sooner than have it aaid that the Department wished to persecute anybody, I would like to see the Government release him. I would like you also to note that in Australia cadets who absent themselves from drill are placed under detention for a period corresponding to the drills missed, but I still hope that it may be possible for our scheme to go on without having to resort to that system." At the other end of the scale are to be found many enthusiasts, as General Godley indicated in a conversation about his recent visits to four of the Territorial camps. "In Otago and Southland I came across men who had been rejected on ac- ! count of physical unfitness but who insisted upon attending drills. The Defence authorities'were in a great difficulty—it's a difficulty we are not sorry to get, of course—to know how to deal with such cases, and I decided that wa would refuse nobody. We must try to devise some method of utilising the services of such willing and enthusiastic men."