COMPULSORY SERVICE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3142, 11 February 1911, Page 3

COMPULSORY SERVICE.

WHAT IT WOULD MEAN TO EYERY MOTHER’ SON. A STRIKING ARTICLE. In the December issue of "The Lady’s Reader'’ appears a remarkable exposition of compulsory training from a woman’s standpoint, written by the editor. The article contains the following passages My reasons for writing this article are many ; the chief one is that I wish to draw the attention of women to what is likely to happen to them- if this nation does not adopt military service—conscription, or any other term one cares to apply to it! There are two hardly used words, or rather misapplied words, in common use; to-day ; they are "Compulsion” and “freedom” ; one is anathema to the persons who generally have the least knowledge of the true meaning of the other; compulsion to them.' stands for order, patriotism, and self-sacrifice, which they detest; while freedom (specially coupied with "Englishmen” denotes unrestricted laziness, inefficiency, selfishness, and a sublimeegotism winch ignores any decent canons of conduct .os citizens of the State which affords them, nationality. Now, to come to your particular another’s son. You have no doubt many objections to his herding in common with all the varied degrees of manhood which go to tiie making of a national army, and I will deal with these later; hut first let me dwell upon the advanages." I do not write without knowledge of soldiers and soldiering, officer and private, regular and volunteer; which moreover, although beyond the age at which I should' be useful to the Government as- an active private or junior sub- • altern, I am quite prepared to take my share- in any training which might he imposed upon a reserve for the middle period'. The universal army would take a young man at an impressionable ago—from the streets, from the middle-class population and the public schools, and would have no concern with h:s origin—which would be good for them. Each would learn from the other during the process of learning to be a useful man-at-arms. The youth from the slums—there should be none in a few years, as a national soldier would refuse to go back to live in them ! —would receive better food than he ever had before ; the working man’s son would find the food at least as- good as he gets at home; and better still, learn'to appreciate it. This would, perhaps, also teach him that there is some connection after all between plain living and a deal of thinking. '\ his will be good for all of them. .From the common crucible will emerge bettor men from the annealing process. We have passed the- stage in our social evolution of dividing British humanity into water-tight compartments, whether you care to recognise it or not*. This annealing process will do more towards bringing unification about than any! attempt at democratic fusion by political methods. The next thing to do is to see that the general level of our people reaches a high standard if we wish to survive, as a great nation or oven a mod.irately important one. It must he patent to all travellers on the Continent how well set-up as a whole are the men they see abroad in comparison with our own ; one secs, very little of the slouching guucheric so obvious in this country, where we have an enormous .number of men with the most elementary ideas of cleanliness and fitness in dress for their labor or apmscnient. To return to my "muttons, , the annealing process; the sound man as he is xo-dav. outside the professional armed' forces —intellectually and physically I have no need to touch upon ; he has hitherto been to a great extent the mainstay of the officering and manning of the Regular, Volunteer, and Territorial forces; it is rather of the advantages to-the idle, listless youth who walk the streets ox our largo- cities, and the thousands of puny specimens of men who throng our provincial and manufacturing towns, specially noticeab.e during football matches, or who occupy the pavements of London streets at night. . - . Your, son "ill be taught essentials in the army. The young supercilious cub. whose manners and general outlook in regard to our working people wore^ not always what they should have been, will probably change! his point of view regarding the dignity of manual labor after he has spent a few months at cleaning out stables at 6 in the moinji)g • or acting as room orderly, in which position he will have to take his turn !n waiting upon his comrades whether they arc his social equals or not in civil life'. This would be a great- leavening process of incalculable value to the nation in a few yAirs. -The man at one enci of the social scale would absorb .something of the educated man’s codeof living and outlook, while the educated youth would realise that there aie others in the world beside himself with many sound attributes which lie might do well to absorb. It would teach mother's son something of the idea of "playing the game,” and that lesson of ,rroai! price, “doing what one doesn twant to do.” This is the negation or ireedom, some sohphist may suggest. But the world works in paradoxes. The first step towards the right appreciation of freedom is “compulsion.” The army induces a spirit of taking things as they come wliitoue whining, and develops a cheerful philosophy of facing facts, a fashion which has departed of late from the nation as a mass. lam not one to ignore the f‘act that every man inside khaki uniform is not always a hero or in any sense a man ; but I do know that the fact «f wearing uniform will often make, won an invertebrate stiffed bis back, and rise to face emergencies on which file and death depend. Three years service for your son, say from nineteen to twenty-two. will add enormously to his physical development, strengthen his frame,'' and vitality, and give bun a sound basis upon which to build the. rest of his life. He will not only lie taughthow to work, among h:s many military lessons, but enforced to pursue it, which one of the many valuable essentials he will be taught If a mans education has been neglected, the a . will do its best to help mm repair tins noedect (We haYe compulsory education')' 'lf he has already received a good education he .will be taught tonkin developing Ins powers. I Juno often heard tlm argument put forward that it would mean three years of a young man’s life taken aVay during a yuj valuable time, when he is engaged in the preparation for his future; my i ply is that most youths waste more than three vears at this period, not altogether in desired ways. One has only to walk through any ‘of the .large open spaces of our big towns' (and especially London) on a summer’s evening to have an ocular demonstration of idle vmith spending his leisure. Soldiei ng not take more than the morning of any day leaving the remainder for study ( the preparation of the young man tor the. occupation he is most likely to seek after Ids service.

There are many political and economic aspects, or compulsory service which do not come within the scope of this article, but in -practice they should affect the nation considerably for the better ; but i maintain that it is a woman’s business to see that the men are forced to deal with the vital neeessiios of the case at once, and for this reason: the lot of the women of any class would be anything but pleasant in the event of foreign troops getting a footing in this country. ~ * 1

The British soldier would he an archangel compared' with the soldiers of some countries, turned loose amidst the womcn-folk of a partieally . subjugated and occupied territory. Do not let me hide the facts; the veneer of civilisation soon wears off amid the mad' lust of war —even modern war ; and I have seen a little of it. Any struggle in this country would be protracted and aroiise terrible ferocity on the part of the combatants, if I know aright the fighting spirit of the people upon whom would fall the brunt of the work; and if for want of preparation wo should be driven to the wall, then Heaven help the wowon ! I was talking some time ago with an officer of a- foreign army, and in the course of the conversation he candidly remarked. "Yo\i know you have such fine women in your country,- and it would be worth while taking it to get hold of them.” Here was the Viking spirit coming out after centuries! Fromthis, you can infer that starvation would be the only form of destruction. And, if you add the sense of shame at national dishonor, their cup will- indeed he full. I am not pessimistic; there- will he no war if we have compulsory training. No nation or combination of nations could' make war on an armed and organised British population with any hope of subduing it. There are many good people and peace faddists shouting from the housetops for disarmament; the wolf is prepared to sleep with the lamb; but don’t be disillusioned on that point. Unfortunately, the- world is still a very wicked place, and the universal peace which we all desire will only conic in its proper course some day. led 1 or driven by forces which arc already shaping themselves; but there is no short cut to this. So it behoves a sound nation with a fighting instinct to “male sicear” until swords and rifles are consigned to the scrap heap,, and it is for the women who have probably the most at 'stake, to see that any untimely fate does not befall us. .

Mothers and sisters of the upper classes are very proud of the public-school tone of their sons and brothers. Is it not desirable that the same code of ethical conduct should obtain throughout the nation? Jt is not an impossible ideal; the public-school boy, of the right sort, glories in doing service for the sake of his school. Cannot we get the same spirit in the mass of the nation for a similar ideal with a wider boundary? The, curse of the British people i;i- all classes is “snobbery”—not to be confused with ’ caste —and universal service, to use its proper and milder nomenclature, would do much to modify this. Since women have - awakened of late vears to a universal sisterhood, so would man after service in the army af. an impressionable' age come to regard his brother as something more than a classified biological specimen living in the next case. Some mothers feav that their sons if they associate in common with other mother's sons in the army, will learn "ntold evil “a youth with predilections in that direction will learn evil whether inside or out of the army. A sound youth will learn no more evil in the army than he would in the office, factory, or workshop. The army will see that your son is made a man if there is any decent foundation in him, and the foundation is your business as a mother. The army should also see, if we got it properly organised, that your son has not got too much leisure to seek evil and pursue it. All healthy boys like soldiering; there is something glorious in following the sound of the- drum or bugle over plain and' along dusty roads; and even in the shivering cold throughout the night on outpsot duty there is the satisfaction of doing what you have been ordered to do against the instincts of seeking one's own comfort—a valuable lesson for after life, when many a man in dire straits would be inclined to "give up his tools” were he not fortified by tiie lesson learnt that he must play the game to the bitter end. Perhaps you may sav, "Mv son has all these manly attributes, and does not ’require service in the army to induce them.” All right'; then lot your son go into the army to teach the lessons to those other mothers’ sons who have not had the opportunity of learning "to play the game" themselves. This is true democracy.

Is there not many a British mother who, while secretly repining at the loss of lier son in her country’s war, is not made better by the treasured knowledge that she bore- a sore who was of the breed who dared to. lose all in-keeping clean the, honor of his race and country? That mother lias a brevet-mark more pregnant with horror than any title or order conferred -by th.e 'Sovereign and State, ft is through the 'mothers -and the women that the military, instincts of bur race must be kept alive, not for wanton aggression, but.-as an instrument. of self-protection,'and for uniting the nation find giveing the people some sort of idea in this new increasingly materialistic age —and until such times as nations find'it cither altruistically or economically impossible to wage- war upon each other; * but this time is. not yet. 'These are the opinions of a fairly representative class of woman, and ought to find some responsive echo from the greatest number‘of our readers. W hen publications reouire an expression of opinion they usually appeal to some well-known person who is generally not a guide noon matters of vital policy. I prefer to recognise the current thought and opinions of lesser mortals, the great majority of whom one meets with in evorvdav life. It- is every woman’s dutv to”see that they force this matter upon the men. They have weapons of their own. and should let it be clearly shown that they consider it a mean and contemptible spirit that the youth au<l manhood, and even sound old age, should not bear arms under a properly organised defence of their country, especially when one hears them argue that women are not entitled to the suffrage because they don’t do the fighting; - .