CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1917, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

CONSCRIPTION' OF THOUGHT. To the Editor. Sir,—We hear a great deal in theso days of the conscription 'of men, also of the conscription of wealth, but I would like to see conscription in yet another "f----form among men, and even more so * among women, and that is tho conscrip. lion of thought. Assuredly tho day» are ahead of us when, on account ot increasing prices, we shall have.to go in for plain living. Then let us by all means have the "high thinking," which, according to the sage, is its natural accompaniment. To begin with, we should bear in mind that conscription lias not been brought in but as a last resource, and when it jb plainly seen, that tho war cannot be won without it, mid as to lose the war is utterly urn thinkable, tho old adage holds good—"Of two evils choose the least." Then see how favorably the conscription of the present day compares with that of a century ago. In those far-away days men were first stupefied, then carried away by main'force to serve in the army or navy, leaving their dependents ' to the tender mercies of a much more • 'cruel world than the one known to lis. t need only refer to tho story of tha young wife left thus with little children, one a baby at the breast, who, forced by hunger to steal a loaf of bread for 1 her family, was later on hanged for the; crime amidst a, jeering and utterly callous crowd of onlookers. Such doings were quite every-day occurrences in tbo "brave days of old," for wore not many young men from the country oven as the time of Queen Victoria's accession, hung for carving their initials on London Bridge! Then, to turn for a space to ' our own fair, smiling land, prosperous as before, and unharmed so far * by shot br shell. Was it not won for us by British soldiers, and developed by British gold? I here quote from a . clergyman of high standing in the old '■ country who says: "It annoys me to hear people say that the war is a pun' ishment for Britain having sinned. Bri, tain has not sinned. She has been called to a great redemptive effort, in which her best and bravest have gone forth in their thousands and tens of thousands to do or die in a noble cause, and ta add to an already glorious history a yet more glorious peace." On the face of things it seems to me that we have far greater cause to fight the Germans than we ever had to fight the Maori's, but was it by heinous "sins" that .our great Empire was built up? There are far too many women who are absolutely unmoved when, for example, they read or hear that the Russians went by the ; million to the front at the first out- ':

break of the war with nothing but what /nst came handy as a weapon, stones for Instance. It leaves (hem quite cold to hear of the terrible punishment meted nut later on by the enemy to these same ill-equipped but stout-hearted fellows, but let just mention be made of a son or husband or brother of theirs going off to the war now, well-equipped, and trained as we know them to be, and with the, odds now greatly in their favor, an* what an outcry we hear from too manyf "England expects ovory woman to do her duty," and that is to put self on one side, and think of her country* needs. Soon after the South African War was over I read that the Boers| went in thousands to the German colonies near them in their fierce resent* ment against Britain. The heat thing they could have done, as we see the results to-day in the splendid support 1 they are now giving ns, for they soon. found those same colonies were g*od] places to be out- of, and their only desire; soon was to make a dash for freedom with the once-hated Britishers. Sufr there are other kinds of fighting besides that on the battlefield. Says Thomas Carlyle: "Every noble work is at first impossible," and for every good law On; our statute-books some man Has had to> battle against the weapons of satire, iinccrs, hatred and prejudice, and lias hadj need of.the endurance and courage or the true "fighter.'' To conclude by two more quotations from the same fearless, writer: "Thero is no darkness but lg* iiorance," and "The worst fault any one> can have is to be conscious of none.". If we could get more people to re»4 and think they would be led to fleet ; things from many aspects, just as tbA. _. diamond cut and polished reflects a thorn ,>r sand times more brSUiantly -than tnsj £