VOLUNTEERS IN THE BALLOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 81, 2 October 1940, Page 8

VOLUNTEERS IN THE BALLOT

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your editorial contention that it would be only common justice for the Government to make perfectly clear the identity of volunteers who have been conscripted will have the approval of the great majority of people. There is no apparent excuse i on the part of the authorities for failure to make this provision, and, indeed, there has been no attempt to suggest that a valid reason exists. If it is thought that invidious comparisons might be made to the discredit of those conscripted, and that protection is afforded them by including the volunteers, I wish to say, as a volun- j teer, that sensible people should not be critical of those who have refrained from enlisting. Unfortunately, this is j not the view of a misguided minority, and I know of many men—and none j of them deservedly^—who have been; insulted in public because they are not in uniform. That being so, the volunteer is surely entitled to protection before the conscript, although many young men have had good reasons for refraining from enlisting. I had been under the impression that two and two make four. According to the official mind, it appears that [ this is no longer so. Under pain of dire penalties, I am obliged to carry with me always a card showing that I enlisted, and was discharged on the ground of permanent medical unfitness. Also under paL of dire penalties, I am obliged to carry with me always another card showing that I am in the First Division of the General Reserve, and, theoretically, fit for service. As was remarked with singular perception by a Cabinet Minister when the ballot was drawn, it is a grave matter to juggle with the lives of men.—l am, etc., DISGUSTED.