AUSTRALIAN ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 58, 6 September 1945, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN ARMY

BIG ABSENTEE PROBLEM

MELBOURNE, September 3. During 1042, Australia's period of gravest danger, military police arrested 20,685 soldiers in New South Wales, the majority 6t them for absence without leave. This is revealed by the Director of Military Prisons and Detention Barracks, Colonel G. F. Murphy, in evidence before the Board of Inquiry into conditions in Australian army gaols and courts. •In 1943 the arrests in New South Wales totalled 26,096—20,086 of the men being charged with absence without leave. Colonel Murphy added that in 1943 14,848 warrants were issued for soldiers absent without leave in New South. Wales. On June 30, 1943, 35,902 soldiers were under arrest. In 1943 the number of soldiers absent without leave.for periods exceeding 21 days fluctuated between 8000 and 10,000. At the end of August, 1943, the number of Army personnel committed to civil gaols by courtsmartial and civil courts was 1131. In one barracks where the receptions numbered 3449, 50 per cent, were between the ages of 18 and 22. From his observations, Colonel Mux^phy concluded that about 90 per cent, of the men going into detention could be turned into decent soldiers. The main reasons given by those absent without leave were domestic, 33.5 per cent, health, 11.1 per cent., not being sent overseas; 9 per cent, dislike of the army 8.3 per cent.