COUNTRY UNITED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1939, Page 5

COUNTRY UNITED

SIR J. SIMON SUPPORTS CONSCRIPTION. PAST EVENTS RECALLED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 28. Speaking in London today on the conscription issue. Sir John Simon said he believed that the country was far more united in support of compulsory service than the minority vote in the House of Commons last night might suggest. It would indeed be a terrible thing if the country, after full reflection, were seriously divided on such an issue at such a time. "But on that point,” he said. “I have had special experience, which, in the public interest, I recall today. Lord Runciman and I are the only members of the present' Cabinet who sat in Mr Asquith's Cabinet in the days of the war. “Nearly a quarter of a century ago I felt it my duty to resign from that Government, of which I was then a junior member, on the issue of conscription, largely because I feared that the introduction of compulsion, following the immense voluntary effort which this country had made, would divide and so weaken the nation. I

thought so then as sincerely as any opponent who voted in the lobby lastnight thinks now. "My one desire then was to sec my country strong and united in its championship of liberty and its resistance to the domination of force, just as 1 am sure this is the desire of every patriotic man and woman today in all parties. . “Bur events proved that my fears were not realised, and I fee) convinced that history will repeat itself and that the policy which is now being icarried through by a united Govern[ment will receive in the end the country’s general support.”