MAN-POWER COMMITTEE

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 December 1940, Page 5

MAN-POWER COMMITTEE

DEFINITION OF “RELIGION” [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] ... WELLINGTON, December 2. What is a. religion? The Wellington Manpower Committee was unable to answer the question when a man calling himself a minister of religion, appealed for exemption from military service. ' . . ....... Mr. M. Sullivan, secretary and Crown representative on the committee, said no definite ruling had been secured from the authorities .as to what actually constituted a religion, except a general definition. Any group of persons not engaged in subversive activity could call themselves a religious body. There was no hard : and fast rule, - and a clear official statement was required. Pending a definition, he adopted 'the. general practice of ascertaining whether the appellant, was entitled by law.to perform marriages. In this case the appellant was a member of the Commonwealth Covenant Church, formerly the British Israelites, and he was listed as a person entitled to perform marriages. In view of the difficulty encountered in cases of this nature, the committee decided to ask the Director of National Service for some ■ clarification of the position. In the meantime decision on the appeal was held over.

NATIONAL RESERVE. WELLINGTON, December 3. Service with the National Military Reserve did not take the place of Territorial service, and was not recognised as an alternative to such, said the Crown representative, Mr. M. Sullivan, at a session of the Wellington Man-Power Committee, when a returned soldier, aged 43, appealed for a postponement of service on the grounds of hardship to himself. Appellant said that he had served in the Military Reserve since the war started, giving two nights and Saturday most weeks to this service. Several single returned soldiers in the reserve were also waiting to know if service in it were recognised as an alternative. The chairman (Mr. M. F. Luckie) said that no matter what the Committee thought, about .the position of such returned soldiers, there was no doubt the regulations under which the Committee worked, did not provide that National Military Reserve service was an alternative to Territorial service. The reserve had been formed before the introduction of compulsory service. The appeal was dismissed.

FARM .LABOUR. HASTINGS, December 2. A proposal that a scheme be provided for the regimentation of labour to maintain primary production in New Zealand has been made to the Minister of Finance by the chairman of the .Hawke’s Bay Manpower Committee, Mr. G. A. Maddison. “As chairman of the Manpower Committee for this district, I am thoroughly satisfied that it is essential, and not only essential but imperative, for the maintenance of our primary production, that some comprehensive scheme be undertaken to provide the necessary labour,” said Mr.-. Maddison in his letter to the Minister. “The Manpower Committees did not come into operation until June 6, and, before that, scores of permanent employees, as well as farmer owners, had left their lands to join the fighting services. As a matter of fact, this district has sent away scores of men, over and above our quota, to make up deficiencies in. the quotas from other parts of New Zealand.”

MOTHER’S PATRIOTISM. WELLINGTON,' December 2. A Wellington woman, who has three sons on military service and whose fourth son has been drawn in the Territorial ballot, appeared before the Wellington Man-power Committee. When the case was called, she said she had intended to appeal, because she would be left entirely alone, but as she was reluctant to be an obstacle to the lad doing his duty, she now proposed to withdraw the appeal. “I would rather be alone for three months now than later,” she said. The chairman of the committee, Mr M. F. Luckie, in accepting the withdrawal, complimented the mother upon her commendable attitude. “The committee heartily appreciates the public spirit and loyalty you have shown,” he said. “Well,” said the woman, as she left the room, “I feel that if I give three of my four boys I am doing my bit.”

FAILING TO REGISTER. CHRISTCHURCH, December 3. In the first case of its kind in the Dominion, Ernest Charles John Storer, labourer, aged 26, was charged with failure to register in Class 1 of the General Reserve, thus missing the ballots for home and overseas service. Detective-Sergeant McClung said that Storer, when questioned, admitted that he had failed to register with the General Reserve. Storer also appeared for sentence on charges of failing to account for ,£5O. Explaining Storer’s failure to register, counsel said that it was due to his reluctance to return to his employer, to get his levy book. Mr Levvey, S.M., refused counsel’s plea to allow Storer to take up military service, and sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment on the major charge of failing to account for £5O. He convicted and. discharged him on the other.

PREFERENCE POLICY AUCKLAND, December 3. Many reservists called in the ballot have expressed doubts as to whether their preferences for particular units are considered. The position is that, where a man expressed a preference for a particular arm of the service, provided he is suitable for that arm and there is a vacancy he should be posted in accordance with his wishes. ASIATICS EXCLUDED AUCKLAND, December 3. The position of Asiatics under the ballot is defined in a recent Army instruction. If a Chinese, Indian, Malayan, or other Asiatic is drawn in the ballot, he is not to be medically examined or posted to a unit, and he will not .be called upon to serve in the military forces.