FURTHER APPEALS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 196, 20 August 1945, Page 6

FURTHER APPEALS

OBJECTORS TO WAR FIRST CASES SINCE V.J. DAY The first appeals since VJ day by conscientious objectors seeking release from detention came before the No. 1 Revision Authority, Mr A. H. Johnstone, K.C., in Auckland to-day. The Authority has now been sitting for about two months and has some 250 cases to deal with. About half of these have been heard. Henry William Munro, shop assistant, married, aged 29, of Dunedin, appealed on religious grounds. He said he belonged to thft Jehovah's Witnesses. He became interested in 1938 and was baptised in 1940. He alleged that he was .taught in a Presbyterian Sunday school that it was wrong to perform acts of cruelty, and when he attended Bible class this was confirmed by the Scriptural admonition that man must not kill and must live in harmony with his neighbours. Never Owned a Rifle Appellant had never owned a rifle or wilfully taken life. His religious beliefs had entailed sacrifices. He had been ridiculed by friends and relations. His wife had been dismissed from her employment because she held similar beliefs to his own. Applicant had been dismissed, even before his appeal was lodged in 1942, from the employment in which he had been for six years. He was-j not opposed to any members of the Armed Forces because he held different views from his own.

Mr. johnstone commented that a good deal of what had been said in a statement submitted by appellant appeared to have been culled from the Jehovah's Witnesses literature. He was not concerned with how appellant came by his beliefs, but as to his sincerity now that he had them. Appellant appeared to have been dismissed from his employment, not because he waa a Jehovah's Witness, but because he was a conscientious objector. Convictions Unchanged Robert Duncan William McCallum, shop assistant, of Wellington, appealed on religious and moral grounds. He did not belong to any particular church, but based his religious beliefs on his home training and his reading of the Bible. From as long as he could remember—he was born in 1918—he had been brought up to abhor war. His parents were imbued with the horror of it, and he had been taught to shun violence and demonstrate brotherly love and good fellowship. He was never allowed to own a gun or go shooting. He had considered that non-combatant service condoned war. After a period in detention his convictions were still unchanged.

Appellant admitted that he had applied to join the Air Force for the thrill of flying. Mr. C. JL Christensen, representing the National Service Department: What happened to convert you to a Pacifist in 18 months? Appellant said the change of attitude came gradually, and largely under his mother's influence. Mrs. Vera McCallum, mother of appellant, said she had brought her son up as a true Christian, to keep the Commandments, and to be definitely against war. She could not understand the Church taking up the attitude that men could be killed in war. She thought it was legalised murder. Had her son been killed by a Japanese air raid over New Zealand she would have regarded it as an act of God. Had Japanese soldiers landed, the situation, hopeless as it was, would just have to have been accepted. It was better to lose one's life than to destroy the soul by doing wrong. Cycle Mechanic's Case John Thomas Jeromson, cycle mechanic, of Wanganui, said he was born in 1917. He began to take part in Bible class work at the age of 18, was a member of the Methodist Church and a Christian Pacifist. He was secretary of the Wanganui Young Men's Bible Union in 1938, district, organiser in 1940 and accepted as a local preacher at Gonville in 1941. He joined the 'Fellowship of Conscientious Objectors and went to detention in 1942. He considered the life and teachings of Christ could not be reconciled with war. Three years behind barbed wire had in no way shaken his convictions, which had been confirmed by the moral deterioration as exemplified by war. Decision was reserved in each case.