§ Mr. CLOUGHasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, under the Commonwealth Defence Act, 1903–11, military training commences for all boys 12 years of age who are British subjects and of European descent; whether these conscripts are called junior cadets from 12 to 14 years of age, senior cadets from 14 to 18 years of age, and members of the active citizen forces from 18 to 26 years of age; whether under its military regulations no conscript can protest or attend any meeting to protest against the Act, and every conscript has to obtain a military passport before he can remove from one district to another; whether by the end of March, 1912, 10,000 eligible boys had not registered, and 31,000 boys had not made the requisite attendances at drills, as required by the Defence Act, 1911; whether by the end of July, 1912, 5,000 summonses had been issued in New South Wales against boys between 14 and 17 years of age for failing to render the military services demanded, and if he can state how many of these were fined £5 each; whether 9,504 boys 14 years of age had failed to register as conscripts by the end of June, 1912, in South Australia; whether in New Zealand 38 young men had been imprisoned for three weeks with hard labour, have lost their Parliamentary vote, and have become debarred from obtaining Government employment, because they refused to become conscripts; whether at least 13,000 New Zealand youths had failed to register in January, 1912; whether Sir Joseph Ward modified the Defence or Conscription Act immediately upon his return to New Zealand from his visit to the Colonial Conference; whether he ordered all prosecutions to cease forthwith and the youths then in gaol to be released; whether he reduced the age of enrolment for conscription from 25 to 21 years of age in order that no voter would be affected by the Act; whether he will state what is his latest information as to the numbers of boys and youths in New Zealand and Australia who have been proceeded against and fined, imprisoned, or otherwise penalised for refusing to become conscripts or to undergo compulsory military training; whether the male children above the age of 12 years of British immigrants into Australia and 802W New Zealand will henceforth be compelled to become conscripts to those Dominions after a residence there exceeding six months; and whether this boy-conscription policy has been adopted by the Government of the Commonwealth in order to create a white Australia, or to allay apprehensions raised by the scaremongers who foretell an invasion of that continent by Germany, China, or Japan?
Mr. HARCOURTThe policy and administration of the Commonwealth and New Zealand Defence Acts are matters entirely within the province of the Governments and Parliaments of these self-governing Dominions, and it would not be in accordance with established practice for the Secretary of State for the Colonies to answer questions of a controversial character such as the last part of the question which the hon. Member has placed on the Paper. I am not in a position to verify or correct several of the statements contained in the question.