CONSCRIPTION OF CLERGY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3022, 8 March 1917, Page 4

CONSCRIPTION OF CLERGY

MINISTER'S STATEMENT. "As I already have slated, the Got* ornnient nmkes no 'distinction between tho 'Roman Catholics and other denominations i" regard t'o the clergy and military service," said the ActingPrimo Minister and Minister of Defence, Sir James Allen, in reply to a question by an Auckland pressman.

"As far as the Defence Department is concerned," said Sir "there is no desire toi compel clergymen.who are averse to combatant duties to go into' the jii-iug-line. -In the cases of the two Roman Catholic students who recently were tfrawn in the ballot, and whose appeals. Mere- dismissed, the Military Service Board recommended thai; they be given non-combatant work. That recommendation will be respected, and the same course will be followed in all t cases in wliich clergymen who aro called, up prefer noii-combatant to combatant work. Already in the noncombatant' section at the Awapmi camp there are three clergymen—an Anglican,, a Presbyterian, and a Methodist, ■

'liio Minister pointed out that frequently clergymen had no objection to combatant work. For instance, there were now in tho Fcatherston, camp two Anglican clergymen serving as corporals, one in tho' Twenty-fourth and tho other in tho Twenty-fifth Reinforcements. There were two Presbyterian ministers in the same camp, one a sergeant in the Twenty-fourth and the other a sergeant-major in the Twenty-' fifth draft. Thoro also was a Congre-j gatioual minister serving as a. sergeant.! in the' Twenty-fifth, and 1 a Church of] Christ minister was a private in the' •Veterinary Corps. At Trent-ham, an Anglican' student held a commission an second-lieutenant in 'the. TwentysovenW Reinforcements, whilst a Metn.-' odist was-a- private in-the Twentyfifth. Another instance was that of two, Salvation Army officers serving as pri? va-tes in tho Twenty-third draft. ~ . "These clergymen," Sir James added,V "are preparing for the firing-line o? their own free will. There is no mri* versarfeeling amongst clergymen that), they ought not to take up combatants work, but whenever they express a wish not to bo given such duties we shall meet that wish by giving them' non-combatant work."