CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1918, Page 7

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

HOW THEY ABE DEALT WITH. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, Feb. 13. The discussion that is proceeding concerning the treatment of "conscientious objectors'' in New Zealand and with the New Zealand Forces abroad reveals a certain amount of misunderstanding as to the attitude taken up by the men who refuse to fight. The Defence Department has not attempted the classification of consciences, am} it places in one group all the reservists who refuse to serve. But, as a matter of fact, there are many varieties of conscientious objectors- The Labor candidate for Wellington North says tlnit the fourteen men wli 0 were sent abroad unwillingly had refused to bear ari».j "some for religious reasons, some for Socialist reasons and soma for Irish reasons." This does not exhaust the list by any mean. Experience lias Bhown that a proportion of the "conscientious objectors" can be converted into soldiers of sorts by offering their services behind the firing line, and (hat others will wear the uniform cheerfully and take their full share of work and danger when once they have realised that discipline, a totally unaccustomed thing to the average colonial youth, is not nearly so irksome as they believed it to be. Tales of the ill-treatment of objectors in the military camps 1 here may be discounted. Bullying is not permitted in the camps and it is regarded by the mass of the soldiers with disfavor. But the objectors naturally are unpopular They are apt either to take up an aggressive attitude or to pose as martyrs, and the normal New Zealander is irritated if he suspects that men wlio, from his point of view, arc dodging their share of the work are also playing to the gallery. Some of the electors have gone to the length of refusing to attend to ' 1 cleanliness of their own quarters, | and the gu»rds who have to wait upon gentHnen of this type are likely to be outspoken. A military camp in some of its features resembles an overgrown "bach." where a certain standard of conduct is necessary to the common comfort. A man may have I,; s own opinions, but lie must not incommode his neiehWs. So a n objector who thinks that he is the victim < ° militarism may be ,ir trouble really lie Ims made himself a nuisance to a fellow New Zealander. The ohiectors are hound to be a-source of trouble and irritation in the military "amps, and the authorities have considered the desirabilitv of separatinc iVtem altogether from the men in training. Put there is an obvious difficulty here. The authorities do not want to manufacture objectors and that cerTainly would lie the result of nutting together all the men who 9tated that they ob'eetcd to fi«rht or to undertake non-com-batant military service. Tf a reservist could escape training l .fov merely stating the,; lie was an objector, the number voi'ld bo multiplied manvfold, and by mutual encouragement and the exchange of ideas the spread of "anti-fight" doctrine would be promoted. It seems that only npplving some pressure to all th« nl>iector= can the authorities " '-;>e to' distineuisli tho genuine conscientious ob'"otor from the inerp would-be shirker. TTr>" far thev «nccced ill doing this is a matter of- opinion.