MILITARY SERVICE ACT

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 40, 16 August 1916, Page 7

MILITARY SERVICE ACT

MEN ALREADY ENLISTED

CAN THEY AVOID THE BALLOT?

Two important questions regarding the application of the Military Service Act are raised by a correspondent signing himself " Enquirer," who writes to The Post as follows :—

" With regard to the Military Service Bill, can you tell me how those rejected as temporarily unfit will stand? ■ Surely they will not be treated as conscripts and their names balloted, wheri they have already offered their services. Also, with .reference to the announcement that it shall be an offence to refuse to undergo medical treatment. This seems so vague, as .-what do the Government term ' medical treatment' ? There are many slight things a man. might willingly undergo, but surely ithe Government don'it expect a man to submit to any operation ordered; such a thing is not done in Germany. My own case is hard, a-s I was rejectedl as unfit, but only temporarily, as the doctor said an operation might fit me (or might not). As I have already undergone one unsuccessful one, and suffered from that, I do not feel inclined to take the risk again." The only men of military age exempted from the operations of the Military Service Act are members of- ih'e Expeditionary Force, men discharged as unfit after service beyond the seas during the present war, men undergoing a sentence of imprisonment for a term not less than one year, or in confinement as of unsound mind, ;uid Natives within the tneanina of the Land Act. 1909. This

means that every other man must go into the Reserve, and his name will be balloted for except in such case where subsection 2 of section 7 applies. This subsection provides: "If the commandant is satisfied, on the report of any medical officer, that any Reservist is permanently medically unfit for military service, the commandant may, if he thinks fit, discharge him from, the Reserve. ' Military service,' as used in this subsection, means any service in' connection with or for the purposes of the present war." This subsection will only apply after the enrolment of the Reserve, when any. man may take steps to satisfy the commandant that he is so unfitted, any man, in this case including men already medically rejected .or discharged as unfit from camp. Thegf men, on being so discharged, will cea«g to come under the operation of the Aofc, aaid will not be balloted for.

Subsection 4 of section 6 provider agj " On the production to the Government Statistician of a certificate under tbo hand of an authorised officer that any person enrolled in the Reserve has, whether before or after the passing of this Act, volunteered for service beyond New Zealand with an Expeditionary Force, and that he has not been accepted for such service, .the" Government Statistician shall endorse on the register a statement of such .fact.": In addition the Recruiting Board-has decided that in the event oi' the ballot falling on such men their names will be . starred in the Gazette notice as an, indication to that effect.

There are only three ways by which a man having become enrolled in the Reserve can be removed from it:—(a) By becoming a member of the Expeditionary Force, either by voluntary enlistment or by being called upon by the ballot; (b) by being discharged by_ the commandant as permanently medically unfit; (c) by being exempted by the Military Service Boards by appeal after being called up on any of the grounds set forth in the Act.

As' regards our correspondent's second question, enquiries made by a Post reporter elicited the information that the whole policy with respect to the compulsory medical treatment of men called up for service is under consideration as to how far the powers conferred by sections 52 of the Act shall be applied.