Or, once more, Mr Arthur Ponsonby’s organization of men pledged to refuse military service in the event of Great Britain going again to war ought not to be suppressed because, if Great Britain did go to war, some hundred thousand individuals would refuse to obey any military service Act that would then be enacted.
Laski defends the right of individuals to refuse military service in the face of potential war.
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More from Harold J. Laski
Ultimately, that denial is always made upon the same ground: it is insisted that the doctrines or practices attacked are subversive of the civil order.
To deny novelty or grievance a right of expression is a certain, if, indeed, an ultimate, validation of the truth they contain.
We grant toleration in one part of the field only to deny it in another.
Each age finds that the incidence of freedom is significant at some special point, and there, once more, the lesson of freedom has to be learned.
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