A VITAL MATTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1939, Page 5

A VITAL MATTER

THE CONSCRIPTION ISSUE MR BARNARD AND MR DOWNIE STEWART. REFERENDUM SUGGESTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) HASTINGS, December 22. “Mr Downie Stewart is either too naive or too subtle for me when he inquires ‘if it was unnecessary to consult the people about going to war why consult them on the lesser issue as to how to fight the war,’ ” said Mr Barnard, M.P. for Napier, today. “Mr Forbes and Mr Savage have both said on different occasions that when the Empire is at war? New Zealand is at war,” said Mr Barnard. “This is part of the price of Empire, but there are varying intensities of warfare, and when it comes to the question of driving the young manhood of the Dominion overseas. I think the people of New Zealand should first give a mandate for it. “It is up to those who see nothing but virtue in conscription to convince the public of the case for it and not try to dragoon them into it. It seems strange those who gets into a frenzy over the powers taken by the Labour Government in dealing with imports and exports are often the very people who hysterically cry to the Government they condemn to conscript for war purposes the flesh and blood of the young. Is not ‘life more than meat and body than raiment?’ ” Mr Downie Stewart was not an hysterical person. “If there is one thing we must all try to do today it is to keep our heads cool and our hearts free from unholy passion and prejudice. I suggested that my personal refusal to decide conserption for the men and women and children of New Zealand might be criticised as irrational, but one" finds from time to time that one’s intuitions are often sounder than the results of an elaborate process of reasoning. However, my points are that I believe we can get men- voluntarily if we go the right way about it, which we are not doing at the moment. “In this connection, Mr Lee, M.P. for Grey Lynn, who has just been relieved of an official post, could do a splendid work indeed. There is no man in the Dominion with better credentials or greater ability for the task. "My second point is that the ultimate decision on conscription should be the voice of the people ascertained through a referendum. I need not traverse Mr Stewart’s deductions about spinsters and bachelors because they do not seem to be connected with the argument and. in any case, take me further afield than is required on the eve of Christmas. My object in talking was to inform my constituents of my views on a vital matter.”