THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1918, Page 2

THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR.

EDS TREATMENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington, May 30. At a meeting of the "National Council of Women" in Wellington the other day some quite alarming statements were made regarding the treatment of conscientious objectors. The ladies who brought the matter forward stated that they wished the discussion to be regarded as confidential, and it is easy enough to understand why they were not courting publicity. The fact of the case is that the conscientious objector is treated much better in New Zealand than he is in the "home of democracy," the United States of America. He is subjected to no ill-treatment at all, and the discomfort that he suffers iB exceedingly mild compared with the dangers and privations that have to be endured by the men who have chosen the harder path of duty to the nation. Some of the speakers at the meeting mentioned referred to "No. 1 Field Punishment" as though this was a punishment meted out to conscientious objectors. This is not the case. No. 1 field punishment consists of the tying of the offender to a gun-wheel. It is inflicted for offences committed in the field, and Marshal Haig has explained that its retention is necessary in order that serious breaches of discipline may be punished in an emphatic way. The alternative, in very many caßes, would be the death penalty. A conscientious objector does not come within reach of this field punishment unless his objections to fighting the enemy failed to materialise until after ho had come within sound of the guns. The man who announces his objections from the first is not forced into the firing line. He goes to gaol if he fails to get exemption; he is kept separate from the ordinary prisoners, _ and he is in no danger of hunger, thirst or WOUDd.