Portal:Australian Freedom League

“ Not only does conscription not prevent war but it actually fosters the war system, for, if men were not forced to become part of the enormous fighting machines of to-day, armies would tend to decrease naturally as international relations improved. Conscription operates to prevent this, and the existence of huge armies and navies engenders suspicion and fear, with the consequently greater possibilities of armed conflict. ”

“ The full history of the conscription movement in the British Empire has not been written, perhaps never will be. But enough is known to put lovers of democracy on their guard. The democratic element in Great Britain has, in the main, opposed conscription, while some of its chief supporters are members of the aristocracy and military officers. ”

“ If we look at the German army of to-day we find a tremendous machine which is neither animated by democratic principles nor tends to propagate them—an organisation thoroughly feudal in its character and aims. ”

“ It took England, with the sea clear and her huge mercantile marine to assist, about three months to land a quarter of a million men in South Africa at the time of the Boer War. If Germany attempted the conquest and subduing of Australia only, the undertaking would be enormously difficult, even if Great Britain's other Dominions, together with France, Italy and Russia, merely looked on. The journey to Australia is very much longer than that to South Africa, and the task of keeping up supplies would be enormous. ”

“ Conscription is no new thing. Every Roman citizen, with few exceptions, was liable for service between the ages of 17 and 46; every foot soldier had to serve in 20, and every horseman in 10, campaigns. ”

“ It is, or should be, the policy of every nation prepared to play a great part in history." In the same speech he demanded an army "strong enough also to make our strength felt on the mainland of Europe should we ever appear there as the armed ally of another Power, as we were on the verge of doing last autumn." The National Service League denied that, in advocating such a policy, there was any intention of aggression, but there is little doubt as to the construction which Germans would place on such remarks from one occupying so prominent a place in English public life. ”

“ Therefore we have come out here to help you set up your citizen army, so that you can show an example to the old country."
There are some of the known facts; Australians must judge for themselves their significance, and the probable ultimate effect of conscription in Australia, bearing in mind the words spoken by the late Field-Marshal Lord (then Sir Garnet) Wolseley' in 1882. "One of the most distinguished generals in the world, who was a German, said once to me that no one could realise the burden which universal service was to Germany except those who really knew what it was. ”

“ That conscription is beneficial morally. The chief grounds for this plea in favour of conscription is that discipline and obedience are fostered. It has been said that obedience is "non-moral," i.e., neither good nor bad in itself. You may have the very strictest discipline on a pirate ship or under a brigand chief. Modern educational theory and practice tend away from repression and subordination and towards self-discipline; outward authority seeks gradually to efface itself in favour of the authority of the child's own developed character. ”

“ Heard, Acting Commandant of the New Zealand Forces, speaking at a dinner at Wellington in September, 1913, said:—We soldiers have come out from the old country for the reason which appeals to us very much....We want the people at home to recognise that they ought to have some kind of a citizen army. ”

“ Its men have been used to suppress strikes; severe hardships from exposure have occurred, sometimes ending in death; many instances of arrogance and brutality on the part of officers have taken place; and the military authorities are continually demanding longer training periods. The chief of the Military Staff, in response to a deputation asking that the Army should be placed on a democratic basis like other Departments, said: "Every army worthy of the name is necessarily autocratic, and in its organisation is the antithesis of democracy." ”

“ Conscription "for the war." And what after the war? The clash of ideas will come in each country; broadly speaking, those who favour the reduction and gradual abolition of armaments, together with a policy of international co-operation, will be ranged on the one side; those who advocate retaining the strongest possible armies and navies and the maintenance of the old international system, with all its unsatisfactory features, on the other. ”

“ That conscription tends to prevent war. This assertion is based on the theory that if every man is a soldier or a potential soldier, the men of a country will do their utmost to escape the horrors of war and so will use their influence against it. ”

“ His experts at the Board of Education told him that no military system equalled the Swedish drill now given in the schools." Sandow gives similar testimony:—"It must never be forgotten for a single moment that military drill and physical culture are two absolutely different things, and must be kept separate...Physical culture has for its entire aim the proper and healthy development of the human body; military drill has for its object the teaching of precision and rhythm in movement." ”

“ The obstacles assumed as removed in the last two paragraphs place the proposition of a successful occupation of Australia, or, indeed, of Great Britain, out of court. But there are other very serious difficulties. The re-adjustment of German finance will require wise statesmanship and unremitting effort over a long period. But perhaps the greatest obstacle of all is the German people themselves; they have fought this war energetically because they consider they are fighting a war of defence ”

“ That is just the difficulty, from the point of view of the National Service League and other British exponents of conscription; they have! And they have not found the facts square with the "democratic" theory.
Friedrich Glaser, Doctor of Political Economy, Munich University, writing of universal service in Prussia, says that when it was introduced these same ideas were expressed in the same phrases. "There was much talk of the 'Volk in Waffen'—the 'people in arms,' the right and duty of each citizen to defend his country. ”

“ That conscription is democratic. The argument is plausible. "All men with certain exceptions, such as those physically unfit, must undergo military training, and in the event of war risk life and limb. What can be fairer?" Why have three recent British Trades Union Congresses, representing millions of individuals, declared strongly against it? ”