[Editor: This letter to the editor, about the compulsory training of Australian teenage males as military cadets, was published in The Observer (Adelaide, SA), 11 February 1911.]
Compulsory military training
From the Rev. William Shaw, Moonta:— “I write to you in the defence of those who are resisting the compulsory military training.
Evidently some writers have more wit than courage. They can write scurrilous criticism, but prefer to remain unknown. The citizens whom they ridicule lack neither courage to publicly condemn the Compulsory Training Act nor determination to suffer rather than register. The scorners seem to know of no higher reason for refusal to register than that of cowardice.
To those who hide their identity behind playful and ridiculous titles the following words of James Russell Lowell would, I presume, be treated with laughter and scorn:—
Ez fer war, I call it murder —
There you have it plain and flat;
I don’t want to go no furder
Than my Testyment for that;
God hez sed so plump and fairly,
It’s ez long ez it is broad,
An’ you’ve gut to git up early
Ef you want to take in God.
One thing is fairly clear, that the Commonwealth Parliament by this Act has prepared an instrument of religious persecution, and in its blindness or wilful folly has involved the whole Commonwealth in this wrong.
The Society of Friends have a history as sufferers for conscience sake. They have a conviction that war is wrong — that it is anti-Christian. They recognise as the rule of conduct a higher law than an Act of Parliament — the law of love to God and man. Hence they cannot, and will not, register under the Commonwealth Act.
The terms of the Act, however, recognise no religious convictions. The son must serve or suffer. The parent or guardian must sign or pay, and keep on paying till he signs. If he refuse to pay — what then? I presume — the distraining of goods or prison. Where have we got to?
The ‘scaremongers’ and military enthusiasts have brought us into a bondage against which as a people we have stood out for generations, and they have so effectively accomplished new designs that, right or wrong, conscience or no conscience, our sons must become soldiers, and every parent must be compelled to sign away his son’s freedom until he is 26 years of age or be punished.
Surely this ‘Act’ cannot be allowed to continue in its present form?”
Source:
The Observer (Adelaide, SA), 11 February 1911, p. 47
Editor’s notes:
The quoted verse by James Russell Lowell was written in the vernacular.
Commonwealth = [1] of or relating to the Commonwealth of Australia
Commonwealth = [2] the Commonwealth of Australia; the Australian nation, federated on 1 January 1901
distrain = to seize someone’s property in place of payment of a debt, as security against a debt, or to force payment of a debt; to force or compel someone to do something by the seizure of their property; (archaic) to constrain, to oppress; (archaic) to pull off, to tear apart
James Russell Lowell = (1819-1891), an American poet, critic, editor, professor, and diplomat; he was born in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA) in 1819, and died in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA) in 1891
See: “James Russell Lowell”, Wikipedia
Society of Friends = a Christian denomination, widely known for its rejection of violence (also known as “Quakers”)
See: “Quakers”, Wikipedia
[Editor: Added a closing single quotation mark after “scaremongers”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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