MILK STARTED IT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 163, 12 July 1945, Page 6

MILK STARTED IT

HATRED OF WAR

YOUTH'S QUARREL RECALLED

How a quarrel over some milk influenced him in his opinions on war was told by Conrad John Welson. aged 25, grocer (Mr. Hogben), when he appeared before the No. 1 Revision Authority, Mr. A. H. Johnstone, K.C., this morning. ....... Welson said he was working on the top floor of a building and a man who was not supposed to do so used to come up from another floor and take some of the milk kept there, with a result that there was insufficient for the tea of the other men. One day Welson had a squabble with him over this and hit.him in the eye, cutting it badly. Applicant said he had to take the man to hospital, where two stitches were inserted.

"I saw what violence did, and I said to myself, 'What right have I to hit that man?' I had no right. That man still has the scar on his eye. I caused that and I have always regretted." Welson said that after this he used to put the milk away for the tea, and he got over the cause of disagreement in that way. When he was young he had a violent temper and used to hit his brothers and run away, but since the incident over the milk he had never lost his temper. His views on war could be traced from that incident. He was about 16 at the time.

Not a Church Member

Welson, who said that he was grade 1., based his application for release from detention on religious and humanitarian grounds. He was not a member of any church, although he had had religious instruction at Sunday school as a boy. To Mr. Greenberg, Crown representative, witness said he had not appealed against service on conscientious grounds because he knew two men who had done so and had had their appeals dismissed. He disagreed! with those decisions, and, therefore, did not think it worth while appealing himself. Regarding a statement he had made that he was prepared to serve in New Zealand, Welson said he had been influenced by the "public mind" and his father's opposition to his stand against war. Questioned on "loving your enemies" with regard to his attitude towards the Japanese, Welson said that if the Japanese came to New Zealand and attempted to harm his wife he would try to love them and try and teach them what was right and what was wrong. "I don't want any man to kill," applicant said. "There have always been wars and each one becomes greater than the last. The next war will be bigger again. But we have it in our power to stop that. There is plenty here for us all, and why should one nation have everything and the others starve?" Applicant denied that his marriage had had an influence upon his views. "I knew I would be going to gaol, and therefore we got married," Welson said. His wife was in favour of his doing what he thought, was right. Why He Did Not Appeal

Two witnesses gave evidence that they knew applicant and that he had held his views on warfare for some years. Alfred Paul Pengelly, a jeweller, stated that ne was surprised when Welson said he would serve in New Zealand. Witness said he would attribute this to the influence of his family. Referring to applicant's failure to lodge an appeal, Mr. Hogben said that in Auckland the general view was that a man, however conscientious he was, had very little chance of succeeding before the Appeal Board then sitting. There must have been at least 100 men who did hot lodge appeals for that very reason.

Mr. Greenberg said that counsel was quite correct when he said there were some who had the impression that they would not have a fair hearing, but he considered Mr. Hogben's estimate of 100 men grossly exaggerated. Many of the men who did not go to an appeal board did not do so because of the weakness of their cases. Counsel's statement was a gross reflection on the No. 1 Armed Forces Appeal Board.

The wife of a defaulter, Sydney Frederick Tee, of Papatoetoe, who applied for release from detention yesterday, appeared in support of her husband's application. She was Joan Eleanor Tee, who said that, like her husband, she was. also a minister of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Two other applicants were Colin Alfred Jones ; of Rotorua,' a member of the Christian Assemblies, and Frederick Hugh Wederell (Mr. Hogben)-, who claimed no religion.

Decisions in all cases were reserved.