CIVIL RIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 138, 7 December 1918, Page 8

CIVIL RIGHTS

THE PENALTY FOR SHIRKERS. The deprivation of civil right as a penalty for refusal of military service was the provision chiefly discussed when the Expeditionary Forces Amendment Bill was considered in the Legislative ! Council to-day. . , Sir Francis Bell said the principle of the Bill was that men who had refused to fight for their country, except 'for specific religious objections, should not be allowed to take part in its government. .The' Hon. J. Paul said he felt.that they were passing a measure which was in opposition to British tradition. They were adopting a vindictive attitude. After men had sufferer! for their opinions and paid the penalty—in the majority of cases two years' imprisonment— they came along and put a new penalty on the men of which they were'not aware when they refused to serve. He might he wrong, such a thing; would be decided by the public in the future, but he suggested that the dangerous precedent of heaping a second penalty on ! those who had paid the realty of the law would have a bad: effect. They would not say that all these men were base. He thought the administration of the law would be found impossible and in- , equitable. The Hon. John Barr considered it a just and proper move on the part of the Government to' bring before these men forcibly the fact that if this country were not worth fighting for, that if the sons of the; country on the battlefield were not worthy nursing, they should take no part in the Government of the country. Those who had acted in this war as true British citizens should have the right to say whether they would haye a brake put on their actions and their endeavours frustrated by those who had refused to help. He could not see why a limit of ten yeai- should be put upon the return of such men to British Citizenship. The punishment already imposed was trivial—the men were merely kept in safety, which wast what they wanted. This was the long-delayed punishment, and he would oppose any future modification of it. (Applause.) The Hon. Te Heu Heu Tukino said he understood that a portion of this law affected tho. Waikato Maoris.- .He related what happened in connection with •the application of conscription- to the Maoris. If the war had lasted much longer 500 Waikatos would Have gone to the front, Therefore he asked that the Waikato section of the, Maoris should not be debarred from voting. The Hon. G. J.. Garland said the objectors to service had not paid the price, as Mr. Paul suggested. They would not pay the price. They refused to do the same as those, who had fallen on the field of battle. Applause.) Sir Francis Bell said he was not quite sure whether the Maoris who refused to serve came within the definition of the Act. He did not think they did; but he did know that it would be almost impossible for the Minister of Defence to obtain thew names. The Bill was put through all' stages without further discussion. (Proceeding.)