MAYOR'S OFFER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 177, 29 July 1941, Page 3

MAYOR'S OFFER

TO SERVE PRISON TERM PACIFIST SON SENTENCED (P ; A) . WANGANUI, -Monday. "Is it possible for me to serve this sentence for my son?" asked the Hon. W. J. Rogers. M.L.C.. Mayor of Wanganui, when John William Rogers was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in the Magistrate's Court to-day for failing to submit himself to an army medical examination under the national service regulations after being called up in The ballot. The magistrate, Mr. J. H. Salmon said that such a sentence could not be substituted. "My duty is simple "' he added. 'I am called on to enforce the regulations, and as recently as Friday last a person in Wellington was sentenced to a term of imprisonment when he failed to report for medical examination. The defendant told the Court that he had come to a firm belief in the spirit of Christ. He would have been inconsistent in submitting himself to medical examination. "I do admit guilt in not doing so," he said "but not in the matter of conscience." Mr. Rogers, senior, said an uncle of his son had been killed in the last war. A cousin had taken his life as the result of war disability A knowledge of these facts had resulted in the defendant signing a pacifist pledge which he considered binding. •lie feels, against my wish that he is committed to that pledge ?: said Mr. Rogers. '