R.S.A. DISCUSSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 137, 7 December 1944, Page 8

R.S.A. DISCUSSION

O.C. WANGANUI, December 6. We want to make it perfectly clear that we are not talking about conscientious objectors whose cases have been dealt with by properly constituted tribunals, but that we are talking about military defaulters," said Mr. C. S. Smith, president of the Wanganui Returned Services Association, moving a resolution at the quarterly meeting tonight in regard to military defaulters.

The resolution, which was passed, urged that all military defaulters should be deprived of their civil rights for 10 years and held in detention camps until 12 months .after the termination of the war, or until such time as all men and women from overseas had been rehabilitated. The resolution also urged that defaulters be debarred from employment in any State Department, or any institution maintained by money from the taxpayers. "There is a dividing line between the genuine conscientious objector and the defaulter," said Mr. Smith. The R.S.A. was not vindictive in its attitude towards defaulters, but it wanted to -be fair to the men who had done their duty to their country Mr. A. W. Mewton, district vicepresident of the N.Z.R.S.A. (Palmerston North) said that every man was entitled to his conscience. The R.S.A. was not discussing conscientious objectors but defaulters, and the present outcry was not political, but had been raised because the R.S.A. was concerned about the men and women at present overseas.

Mr. J. F. Croasdale, supporting the resolution, said that he had served on staffs at defaulters' camps, and conditions there compared more than favourably with those of soldiers who were serving, even in New Zealand. He said that 12 months ago it cost more to feed these men than soldiers. There were anomalies in some of the cases he had come in contact with. Some men were being held under circumstances which made them' different from the average .defaulter. He was not prepared to argue the rights or wrongs of these particular cases, but mentioned the fact that they existed more in the nature of information for the association.

Mr. S. Duffy thought the motion was a bit hasty, as the grounds on which the men had been detained, in some cases, had not been clearly defined. "We should look back and see if society has been careful enough in judging these men," he said. In his opinion all cases should have been decided by a Judge of the Supreme Court.

Mr. Smith: I don't see how we can distinguish between who may, and who may not be a conscientious objector, if they are detained. All we can say -is that they are in detention camps as defaulters.