taries of the Australian National Defence League, N.S.W. Division. In the August, 1908, issue of its organ, "The Call," the League congratulated "the parent League" ("The National Service League of G.B.") on the "great progress it has made in the last twelve months." The Universal Service League originated in New South Wales, and some of its leading members are, or were, also members of the Australian National Defence League, notably the Hon. J. C. Watson.
Lord Roberts wrote to Col. Allan Bell in New Zealand: "I hope your efforts to get universal training in New Zealand will be ultimately successful; for, if you fail there, it will mean we shall not get it here in England." Col. 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. 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. The burdens were very great, and the system drove from that country its finest men, so that it was regarded by a large section of the people with detestation and horror. They had only to go to such places as Hamburg to see thousands of able-bodied men leaving the country to escape from that 'infernal and cursed burden of universal military service.'"
AUSTRALIAN FREEDOM LEAGUE.
(IN OPPOSITION TO CONSCRIPTION)
Telephone: Brighton 2325.
Commonwealth Organiser - - THOS. J. MILLER.
Central Office:
"Bide-a-Wee," Lees St., BENTLEIGH, MELBOURNE.
Fraser and Jenkinson, Print., Queen Street Melbourne.
