CONSCRIPTION BILL

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21205, 30 August 1940, Page 9

CONSCRIPTION BILL

LEGISLATION IN AMERICA APPROVED BY SENATE 4,500,000 MEN AVAILABLE (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 23 The United States Senate has passed the Conscription Bill. It will now go to the House of Representatives. The Bill seeks to provide for a year’s compulsory service for men between the ages of 21 and 31. It is expected that under the proposals 12,000,000 men would register, and that from this number 4,500,000 would be available for selection by draft. The first test vote on the Bill occurred when the Senate, by 54 votes to 29, rejected an amendment by Senator Walsh to postpone the draft of the Bill until Congress had declared war or the country was threatened with invasion. The Senate amended the Bill to permit the Government to commandeer private plants which refused to co-operate in the national defence programme. President Roosevelt has signed the legislative documents authorising him [ to call out 396,000 members of the 1 National Guard and Army Reserve for a year’s active duty. Denunciation of Aggression Marking the 12th anniversary of the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, made a statement denouncing aggression and issuing a warning that no nation can hope to remain at 'peace except by vigorous preparation of self-defence. “It was to spare the human race from the untold suffering and tragedy we are witnessing to-day that the pact was signed,” said Mr Hull. “Today no country and no individual is secure. No human being anywhere can be sure that he will be allowed to live in peace.” After referring to the violations of the pact, he commented that the soundness of its underlying principles had not been impaired by what had happened. Sooner or later they must prevail as the unshakeable foundation of international relations—unless war, with its horrors and ravages, was to become the normal state of the world and mankind was to relapse into chaos and barbarism.