VOLUNTARY SYSTEM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 December 1939, Page 8

VOLUNTARY SYSTEM

DEFENDED BY MR BARNARD NECESSITY OF CONSCRIPTION QUESTIONED. OBJECTION TO SOLDIERS’ PAY FOR ALL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The Hon. AV. E. Barnard, interviewed today regarding the reported statement made last night in Auckland by the Hon. F. Langstone, said that if conscription were necessary, which he did not admit, the question should be decided by a, referendum of the people. Mr Barnard considered that all necessary men could be obtained by volunteer methods if the right means were used. An almost casual appeal through the Press, or an odd talk over the air, would not do. Use should be made of returned soldiers and members of Parliament, who should be invited to play a leading part in the country’s war effort He was opposed to the suggestion that everyone, might be required tc live on a soldier's pay and rations. The soldiers were fighting for democracy and the maintenance of the present living standard. It would be no encouragement to them if the folks at home were compelled to put up with an inferior standard of life. To increase the soldiers’ pay was a better policy than to whittle down the incomes of the people. The country had not forgotten the bitter experience of impoverishment which it was compelled to experience a few years ago.