NATIONAL SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1938, Page 5

NATIONAL SERVICE

DIVIDED VIEWS IN BRITAIN COMMENTS ON VOLUNTARY SCHEME. TEST OF PUBLIC SPIRIT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, December 2. Press comment is divided between favouring Sir John Anderson’s voluntary scheme and preferring compulsion or thirdly, accepting the voluntary plan as a test. “The Times,” taking the view last mentioned, asks: “Will the plan satisfy the nation, in which there is undoubtedly a lively feeling that the Government should have struck while the iron of relief at the Munich settlement was hot and demanded a drastic measure of national organization and training? “No doubt it is less dramatic than some would have wished, but it possesses the supreme virtue of offering a thorough test of the public spirit of the nation. Everything depends upon the response to the appeal in the New Year.” The--“ Daily Telegraph” outspokenly declares: “A measure which taps only part of the nation’s man-power cannot be enough. A voluntary register reveals the numbers of those willing to offer for service but gives no guidance regarding those who are capable of giving service. “It will be difficult, if registration is optional, for people in the mass to realize that it is an urgent duty. It will seem as though the Government is not. very much in earnest after all.” The “News Chronicle” welcomes the voluntary scheme and hopes that the agitation for compulsion will now be dropped. It declares that the scheme is good, but must be accompanied by more inspired appeals than have yet been heard. “Let the Government show by deeds as well as words that it intends to uphold democracy at-home and abroad.” DEBATE ON TUESDAY. ATTITUDE. OF OPPOSITION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) RUGBY, December 2. There is to be a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday on the Government’s proposals for national voluntary service, as outlined by Sir John Anderson (Minister for Civil Defence). It is understood that, while accepting the scheme in principle, the Opposition will call for further information on certain aspects of the proposals. Sir John Anderson announced that he was preparing the necessary machinery, so that it could be speedily put into operation should need arise in national emergency.