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Salient. The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 20, No. 5. June 14, 1956
[Introduction]
"That Compulsory Military Training be abolished in New Zealand" was the subject considered at the Debating Club on Friday, June 1. It was not very interesting. Only the regulars were there—a pity, because the subject concerns nearly all the men at this University—and few speakers showed any brilliance. Two speakers devoted all their time to elaborate parables which had not even relevance to compensate for their dullness, and the entire case of one side showed that a grasp of the elements of political science was beyond them.
Thomas began by saying that C.M.T. Should only be suffered at a time of crisis. Peacetime conscription was a repudiation of the ideas of Liberalism which believes men to be free.
Blackwood, a well-reasoned and most interesting speaker, said that the Greeks, from whom we have much of what is best in our society, thought defence of the State part of one's education. He stressed the use of C.M.T. as part of a need for general preparedness, as a force for internal security, and as a contribution towards our international obligations. ("So Sid can nip cocktails on an equal footing with the president of the U.S." as someone commented later.)
Hebenton suggested that the world situation had changed, that today there is no crisis, and anyhow atomic warfare has made our training schema antiquated and useless. Last of the set speakers, Larsen, extolled the "by-products" of the scheme—discipline, comradeship, and so on.