Foreword.

The publication of this book may be said to have a three-fold purpose. It Is written to turn the searchlight of publicity on a policy which had we been wise should never have been written into the Statutes of this country: secondly, to make known some of the shocking experiences the men of conscience were called upon to undergo and the terrible price they were required to pay for their crime of holding conscientious objections to military service; and, finally, to make it impossible for such a stupendous wrong to ever again sully the annals of this country with the record of its atrociousness.

To this end I have sought to place the book before the public in advance of the General Election. It is imperative that the electors should know the lengths to which a Government, having clothed itself with military despotism, in arrogant disregard of the wishes of the people, found it possible to go in its determination to translate into practice the theories of the military extremists. This being so, and because the General Election cannot be much longer delayed, the work of compilation has had to be done in great haste and often during intervals snatched from the crowded hours which belong to strenuous campaigning.

I wish to thank Messrs. Brown and Briggs (Palmerston North), the Social Democratic Party (Wellington), the National Peace Council of New Zealand (Christchurch), the Labour Representation Committee, (Gisborne), the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. S. Ballantyne, Messrs. Ronald S. Badger, Burns, Smith, Begg, and Moffit, and other friends for placing sufficient funds at my disposal to cover the cost of publication. I also wish to thank Mr. J. Glover, manager of "The Maoriland Worker" for having turned the work out at little more than the cost of production; the conductor of the Country Worker's Page for advance notices in successive issues; "The Worker" mechanical staff for the manner in which they have cheerfully co-operated in hastening the production of the book, as well as for the excellence of their work; and Mrs. Beck, of the Women's International League, for assistance in compiling lists of imprisoned C.O.'s.

Whatever profits accrue from the sale of this book will be devoted to the fund for providing for the maintenance of the wives and children of imprisoned and victimised Conscientious Objectors.