The Rev 



EVIEWS 



TEAff»EKA.XCE AND GBNBRA.L LIF i£ ASSVUANGE BUII^UCNG, SWAJVSTOJV 



STREET, MRLBOVRNE, 



II a matk is agaJn^t tbi- line the copy Is a sample one. Will you read it carefully and then send 8s. 6d. either to your news agent or to "The Review «f Reviews, 



T. and G. Building, Melbourne, and receive it foi la months. 



THE HISTORY OF THE MONTH. 



Melbourne, April 22, 1912. 



According to Mr. Anstey, M.H.K., 



The Labour ,jne of tlie oracles of the Labour 



Party's Sedan, p^rty, that Party is " marohing to 



its Sedan." In this liguravixe 

 fashion he prophesies the defeat of the Party at 

 the next elections. He says that his reason- for 

 saving this is that he believes that the Re- 

 ferendum proposals will prove too heavv a 

 hamper for the Party to carry, and that, 

 over -weigh ted, tht- Party will lie dt-fcatfil. 

 Anrither memlier of the Federal P.irliament, no less 

 a personage than Mr. Fisher, commenting u]")on the 

 defeat of the State Labour Party at the South Aus- 

 tralian elections, said that the Party could not ex- 

 ])ect to win every election, ,m<i the two statements, 

 taken together, mav indicate that its members are 

 not feeling too confident of their position. <-)n tlie 

 ether hand, Mr. Anstey may have performed a dual 

 action and winked the other eye. His .st.iteiTient 

 may have hieen made with the idea of spurring the 

 apathetic among his party, and of trying to lull the 

 Lilveral Party into a sleepy contentment with the 

 assurance that its success is assured and that lit nr-t-d 

 not organise and work. If the latter were his inten- 

 tion, his effort will fail signally. The Lil)eral Partv 

 is ti:<) fully .s«iized with the situation, and too much 

 intent upon organising to be turned froim the path 

 by any soft soijhi.strit^s held up to it bv the Labour 

 Party. It knows how that Party is organised. 

 Further, it does not much care whether the Labour 

 I'artv sul>mits the Refercn(hini iirojHJsals or not, 

 although l)Oth Mr. Fisher ,uid Sir. Hughes have 

 most emphatically .sitated that thev are to lu> 

 re-submitted, and cannot draw back wiithout loss of 

 prestige. For the people's eyes have been 

 <pened, and the Laltour Party's administration h.is 

 Uvn coincident with .so much blatant oppression on 

 Ihe part of Labour, that the ]ieople are n<it likely 

 to forget. 



X<'w /.■■al.uid is having trouble oxer 

 Compulsory her Compulsory Training Act. Local 

 Seriice. fc<'ling in .some qu.inters there runs 



\ery high. For refusing to take the 

 <.ath under the Defence .A.ct, five lioys were sen- 

 tenced to three ww^ks' imprisonment, 'lliey \v»-re 



released from prison by the Minister for Justice on 

 the ground that refusal to register debarred the 

 refu.ser from exercising his rights bv voting at elec- 

 tions and also from entering the Civil Service, and 

 that this was punishment enough. And far too much, 

 .Seeing that the refusal was promirted not by any 

 de.=ire not to do duty if the pinch of trouble came, 

 but from religious scruples. There are quite a lot 

 in .\ustralia who are not registering. The Govem- 

 m<nt is anxiously lonking for aliout 10,000 bovs 

 w h<i ;'.re supjjosed to l>e existent, acx^ording to census 

 returns, but are net on the regi.ster of the Defence 

 Department. .And there will f>e still further opposi- 

 tion. The war god is nit worshipped by all. .nid 

 there are many who look upon the cominilsorv tr, lin- 

 ing of our boys as a \-otive offering to him. If 

 youths, on attaining the age of twenty-one years, 

 were compelled to learn a certain amount of drill 

 there wiaild l>e less to sav about it ; but to take 

 lad--; from fourteen years of age and tie them to 

 drill for eleven years is making a farce of defence. 

 Xuml)ers of parents who accepted the positir^i at 

 its inception without comment, are becoming stout 

 objectc>rs to it. 'J'hey liiid the indiscniminate mixing 

 of lads a bad thing, and are concerned for their 

 boys' morals. There is this aspect of the case, 

 too, that is grave enough to cau.se serious thought. 

 Lads brought up on militarism during their most 

 impressionable years are not likely when man- 

 hood comes t<j be strong advocates of uni- 

 versal peao- and the degrading of the war god. The 

 con.stant handling of a rifle in drill constantly im- 

 ]>rints on the boys' minds the image of a man he may 

 some day point it at with intent to kill. The Act 

 will have to be altered .Sfwner or later to make allow- 

 ances for those who have conscientious objections 

 against it. 



Some prominent writers .wiy that 



*" the Act will break down unless tJie 



Alternallve. n^^. g^^^,,^ ^^^^ j^ i^^cmght into it, 



that the sy.stem is too monotonous, 

 and that in any case <.ur bovs are not steeped in 

 militari.sm sutliciently to make them very ardent. 

 I'liere iis a deal to !« s.iid for this, although it 

 even ought to be voluntary. But if boys were taken 

 by trained ob.servers, taught to get close to Nature, 



