On Military Service

We feel that we should be failing in our duty to ourselves and our College as a whole if we do not seize this first opportunity of unequivocably repudiating some far from complimetary remarks made by a past president of our Students' Association.

At the annual meeting of the Wellington Branch of the Navy League held last week, the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C., discussing the Oxford Union resolution that "this house will under no circumstances fight for King and country," said that it had been suggested that the young men concerned would rush to the colours if war broke out—he did not think so.... Perhaps these young gentlemen of OUR (the capitals are ours) university here felt like the young gentlemen of Oxford that it was a shame to wear the King's uniform. Perhaps they would rush the front seats at the civic reception to the invader.

We should like to remind the Hon. W. Perry of the passage from the Old Testament, "Am I my brother's keeper?", that the Oxford Union resolution, in the minds of many, is a very vague resolution overlooking as it does the distinction between aggressive and non-aggressive, and Imperialistic and non-Imperialistic, war, that the V.U.C. machine gun platoon was disbanded by Headquarters not for lack of recruits but for its particular convenience and that many V.U.C. students are to-day scattered amongst the ranks of the Wellington Regiment, the Artillery and the Naval Volunteer Reserves.