“WARS MAN-MADE”

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 112, 5 February 1941, Page 10

“WARS MAN-MADE”

Ground For Objection To Service DISMISSAL OF APPEAL His appeal on conscientious grounds was “based on the indisputable fact that all tvars are inan-made and fighting iu this one will never stop more mass murder,” stated Herbert Henry Saint, carpenter, in his statement to the No. 4 Armed Forces Appeal Board in Wellington yesterday. “It is only the poor people who really suffer so I am quite right in conscientiously objecting to helping in more destruction of life. The last world war was called the ‘war to end war.’ Since then there have been 40 more wars. The men then in power promised a better world order which, I am sorry to say, we are still waiting for. This is not a statement of fear but one I would stand by in any country.” On the ground of hardship appellant said his widowed mother in England was almost entirely dependent on him. She had no pension and was a semiinvalid. He came to New Zealand to get more settled work so he could help her more.

Asked what he would do in case of invasion, appellant said that the way things were in New Zealand he did not think much could be done; it would be mass slaughter. He thought those who were dropping bombs near where his mother lived were misled like those of all countries engaged in the war. While war was glorified in history books he could not see much change coming. The appeal was dismissed.