THE CALL TO ARMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1916, Page 4

THE CALL TO ARMS.

LABOR'S ATTITUDE. iSniRKEE.3 AND OTHERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Jan. 20. The Labor Conference, up to tht time of writing, has not produced the anticonscription manifesto that it was called together to adopt. The manifesto 1 doubtless will make its appearance presently, but your correspondent gathered in conversation with some of the delegates that the conference has not bten disposed to accept all the views of the conveners with regard to the recruiting question. The delegates who were prepared to say frankly that the Government ought to exercise powers of compulsion directly the voluntary system threatened to fail appear to have been in a minority, but one gathers that the manifesto U likely to be less sweeping in its terms than the original draft was. The New Zealand workers do not tolerate sentiments of the kind that have been expressed 1 by. some of the spokesmen of Labor ia Australia, One speaker at a recent meeting in Sydney etated that "there was no country on the face of the oartta to justify the sacrifice of one working man's life in its defence." Another speaker mentioned that he had received a recruiting appeal pointing out that "it was the duty of everyone to liolp the Commonwealth in its day of need." "I replied," he declared, "that if the' Com' monwealth looked to me for support in its hour of need, then God help th» Commonwealth."

The Government Statistician's analy* eia of the 8390 single men and widower* without dependents who stated on their National Registration forms tliat thejr were not prepared to render service of any kind, military or civil, rcvcnli some interesting facts.' No fewer than 2flP2 . men explained their refusals on tho ground of 111 health and physical disability , and there seems to be no doubt that 'most of those replies were given in good faith. Then there were 81ft conscientious objectors, and 2130 men who were unable to leave their present occupations for business or financial reasons. The available evidoncc goes to ; show that in most of 'these eases tl'.o I men had obligations they could not be expected to leave lightly. Among the I other groups 11 men said bluntly tb»t they were afraid. Some 1700 men gave* no 'reason at all. The conclusion to be drawn from *sie figures is that the number of actual (t*. : --Uere is very muchsmaller than the or'ina- report suggested The return deals i-nlv wl~i the men without dependents. The majority ii the men in the '-unwilling'' class were married. WAR FCXDS. Tn preparation for the conference to be held in Wellington next month, the Minister of Internal affairs Is asking the Patriotic. Societies throughout tlio Dominion for information regarding their dealing with (he money entrusted to them by the public. Ho wants to know how much money has been obtained, how much has been expended, ' the nature of the expenditure, and tho character of the investments made. Tho Minister, it may be mentioned, has legal power to demand all this information under the. War Funds Act of last year. Some of the replies ought to ho interesting. The content between the Minister and the Patriotic Societies is approaching an interesting stage, and I am inclined to think that the societies will have to make some definite allocation of duties and responsibilities in the near future.