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Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23349, 7 June 1941, Page 11

BACK TO CIVIL LIFE

Soldier Recalled From Draft WORK IN BISCUIT FACTORY A soldier in the next draft to go overseas will, instead, go back to civil life for an unstated period, supervising the making of biscuits. This is the effect of a decision of the Armed Forces Appeal Board in the city yesterday. The soldier was Walter Samuel Kinley, and his former employers. Aulsebrook and Company. Ltd., appealed for him on the grounds of the public interest. Mr W, R. Lascelles. for the company, said that the lateness of the appeal was because the company understood that Kinley would have been given exemption before, automatically. A. C. Holmes, secretary of the company, and R. W. Britton, manager of the biscuit department, gave evidence of contracts the company had secured recently for making biscuits for Imperial and New Zealand troops. _ It would be necessary to work two shifts, and Kinley was the only man trained for supervision of one of the shifts. A man to run the other shift had already been exempted Kinley himself, said Mr Lascelles, would do what the board thought fit. To Mr Tracy it was stated that there was no other man who could do the job Only in the lasi four years had Aulsebrook and Company begun to train men to take the place in the factory of others who were growing old. * Mr Tracy suggested that in six' months the company could let the board know the position. Adjourning the appeal sine die. Mr Reid said that the importance of the civil work done bv Kinley had been proved. Members of the board are Messrs F. F. Reid (chairman) G M Hall and A H. McKane. Mr J. E Jones, a deputy member, attended for part of the day’s sitting. Appeals by the • New Zealand Tobacco Growers’ Federation for three tobacco growers, on the ground of public interest, were heard Marcus Cook Drummond and Theo Stilwell were granted adjournments sine die and the appeal of Ellis John Hickmott was dismissed On Grounds of Conscience The appeal of a master butcher. Noel Thornton, who said he would serve as a butcher or cook with the forces, but otherwise objected on grounds of conscience, was dismissed, appellant to be employed only on non-combatant duties.

The appeal of Thomas James Meadows. a farmer and contract plough.man. was adjourned sine die on the ground of the public interest. His appeal on the ground of undue hardship was dismissed and his further appeal on the grounds of conscience was dismissed. on the condition that he be ca'led on for non-combatant service only. The appeal on grounds of conscience of Frederick Alexander Lane, a jeweller, was allowed, the chairman saying Lane was obviously sincere in his religious views. An appeal on the ground of the public interest was not heard. Cyril Vincent Walter’s appeal on grounds of conscience was withdrawn Alexander Cunningham Reid, a cabinetmaker appealing on grounds of conscience, said he belonged to a Christian z >mbly which had no paid pastor. He preferred to take directions from the influence of the Holy Spirit, he said, and as an individual would help'hnvone. but he did not believe in war. Decision was reserved. Kenneth Edgar Adams and Thomas Align Adams, brothers, and bo’h farmers. appealed on grounds o.f conscience. Both said they had joined the Peace Pledge Union since the war began. Decision was reserved, as it was in the appeal of Cyril Lancelot Watkins, an appellant on similar grounds, Alfred Ernest Fraser, a Seventh Day Adventist, appealed on grounds of conscience. He said he had been doubtful. in the event of his b°ine taken for non-combatant service, whether he could observe Saturday a* the Sabbath He was ouite prenared to do service Mr Reid said that those members of appellant’s church now serving in ambulance corns were allowed that Sabbath observance. and appellant said that in that case he was cjuite willing to serve Decision was reserved, apnellant to do non-combatant service only. Two anneals were heard for Alwyne William Ewart —his own on grounds of conscience and one bv his mother. Mrs D. S Ewart. It was stated that Ewart’s only two brothers had enlisted in the Army Decision was reserved Decision was also reserved In the appeal on similar grounds of James Turnbull Travers The appeal of E Riddle, a narent, for David Ma c on Maxwell Riddle, on the ground of undue hardship was withdrawn. The appeal of the Director of National Service for Colin Galloway Green, a meteorologist in the Air Department. was adiourned sine die. the chairman stating that the man was doing work tust as important as if he was in uniform. Frederick Oswald Tozer, a university student, who said he would do nothing to aid the prosecution of the war, apnealed on grounds of conscience The individual was more important than the community, he claimed. Decision was reserved. - The appeal for a tractor driver, Raymond Edward Boyle, was allowed on the ground of his status. On the understanding that they should be called on to do non-com-batant service only, to which they agreed, the appeals of Hugh Ernest Thomson. James Arthur W Sandford. and John Laurence Fraser were dismissed Sandford was recommended for service in the Medical Corps. 'An appeal for his teamster Sector James Carr, by a farmer. F. G. Early, on the ground of th° public interest was adjourned sine die. . . John Crum Wilson, a librarian, who appealed on grounds of conscience, said he was opposed to compulsory obedience to anyone. In civil life a man could resign his job If he felt he could not carry out commands by his superiors. but that could not be done in me Army. Wilson said he was prepared to do medical work under civil control Decision was reserved. Gordon Joffre Bland, a clerk, who said he was a Seventh Day Adventist, and who appealed on grounds of conscience. said he was willing to do such •work as driving an ambulance or serving in the Medical Corps, but claimed that he could not agree to an acceptance of all non-combatant work, since some of it. in his estimation, might aid and abet the killing of men. He objected to the taking of the mill; tary oath, he said. Decision was reserved.