DRINKING AMONG SOLDIERS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23495, 25 November 1941, Page 3

DRINKING AMONG SOLDIERS

MAGISTRATE’S COMMENT ACTION BY MILITARY POLICE SUGGESTED CP.A.) AUCKLAND, November 24. After he had dealt with two Maori soldiers and a pakeha soldier charged with fighting, and a pakeha sergeant who admitted assaulting a police constable, Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., commenting on the numbers of soldiers who wandered about, many of them under the influence of liquor, said it was the duty of the military police to remove such men from the streets. In future, said the Magistrate, soldiers in uniform who misbehaved themselves would be dealt with more severely. “It appears to me that the civil police round up these men and military officers later come to Court and speak on behalf of the soldier offenders,” said the Magistrate. “Prevention should be the order of the day. The military police should be placed in a position to deal with men in uniform who are found drunk about the town. It is not an uncommon thing to see soldiers wandering about the streets under the influence of liquor. Why the military police are not on duty to prevent such conduct I do not know. “During the last war,” the Magistrate added, “the military police did a good job. In future fines will not be imposed except in special circumstances. In my opinion there should be some method of preventing excessive drinking by soldiers, and a stronger force of military police on duty in the city to remove from the streets those soldiers who do not behave themselves. I think that will have some effect on the drunkenness which has become so rife with certain classes of the forces.”