RATHER BE KILLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 143, 19 June 1941, Page 9

RATHER BE KILLED

OBJECTOR'S VIEW OF

WAR

WRITER OF SACRED MUSIC

MORE APPEALS HEARD

"I would rather be killed than kill another person," asserted Alan Heathcote White, a civil servant employed by the Education Department, when appealing on conscientious grounds against military service before the Armed Forces Appeal Board yesterday afternoon. He said he believed that there would be Divine intervention so far as the war was concerned very soon.

The appellant said that he had already done three months' Territorial training, and that his present appeal was forwarded while he was in camp.

In support of his claim to be conscientiously opposed to war, the appellant produced a number of psalms and sacred songs he had had published and performed, including a psalm written in Jerusalem in 1936, and an oratorio, "The Triumph of Christ." He had hoped to do missionary work, but the death of his father precluded that, and two years later he had planned to study for the Church of England ministry, but he had to abandon that also.

The appellant said that he was in the Medical Corps during his term in camp, and they had been told that the Medical Corps were to be armed with rifles for self-defence. During the last few weeks they were given arms and instruction in them. The chairman remarked that the appellant would be a huge success in the Army. "Anyone with the capacity to write music like you would probably not need to fight at all —you would be a success, socially and otherwise," he added.

The appeal was dismissed, the appellant being informed that he could apply for service in the Medical Corps.

SAW VISIONS OF CHRIST.

After seeing two visions of Christ, Lindsay Gordon Pollock, carpenter, renounced the ways of the world and joined the Commonwealth Covenant Church, according to. a statement he made to the board in support of his appeal against military service on the ground of conscientious objection. The appellant said he saw the first vision in his room, and the whole room lit up. He saw the second vision in the clouds. "I left the world," he said, "and. my whole life has been cleaned."

Mr. C. O. Bell (Crown representative): It is rather a remarkable conversion, is it not? —It is for me. The hearing was adjourned for further evidence.

Hugh William Kelly, a clerk in the Wellington City Council's employment, said he was organist for the Maranui Methodist Church and a member of the Christian Pacifist Society. He was opposed to war. The appeal was dismissed, subject to non-combatant service. "■

Albert William Hay, builder, said he believed in continuity of life after death, spirit return, and survival of personality, and considered it as utterly wrong to take life. He was prepared to do E.P.S. work, but not under military control, because he was not satisfied with the Government's guarantee that it would be definitely noncombatant work. He had been prosecuted fourteen years ago for not attending parades. The appeal was dismissed, subject to non-combatant service, and a second appeal on the ground of hardship was referred to the ManPower Committee, as it concerned Territorial service

An appeal by Austin Abbotsford Smith, a general labourer, and a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, was dismissed, subject to noncombatant service.