DESERTERS AND DEFAULTERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 161, 10 July 1945, Page 4

DESERTERS AND DEFAULTERS

"TWO sentences promulgated yesterday in the cases of soldiers found guilty of desertion provoke reflection. Both men concerned absented themselves from camps in 1942, and were not found (though one surrendered himself) until last month, when the war in Europe was over. In effect, they denied their services to the Dominion for more than two years. Their sentences, fixed by a military Court at nine months' hard labour, have for reasons unexplained been reduced by the convener of the Court to six months, ; Kltbe. motive of the men was to dodge the active service which their fellow New Zealanders undertook —service in the course of which, during the period, many of them were killed or wounded—then, in their cases, desertion "paid," How can such sentences be reconciled with those passed on men classed as defaulters, who were, and still are, detained in camps for indeterminate periods? Unless in exceptional circumstances the difference between a man who refused to serve, and another who did not refuse, but successfully evaded service, is indistinguishable. If the treatment of defaulters is just, then the sentences passed on these two deserters are ridiculously light; if, on the other hand, the sentences can be defended as adequate, then some hundreds of defaulters have a substantial grievance.