ARMY EXEMPTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 9 August 1941, Page 8

ARMY EXEMPTION

UNIFORMITY URGED APPEAL BOARDS’ RULINGS PROTEST BY MR. LEE (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, thin day. The .decisions of the Armed Services Appeal Boards differ so much from place to place that Mr. ,1. A. Lee (Dent Lab . Grey Lynn) remarked in the House of Representatives that he was very curious about them. So many people had been brought into the business who had not been soldiers in the last war. he said. There was one in Auckland, who seemed to have taken up a most ferocious altitude towards the conscientious objector. Personally, added Mr. Lee. he could not understand the attitude of a conscientious objector, but the law existed and, as its application differed so much from centre to centre something was obviously wrong. He could not understand why one man could be exempted because he had much land which was fertile, and the seventh son of a widow whose other sons were in uniform had Iter objection over-ruled. It was time that instructions were laid down tor these appeal board. “Tribunals Making Law”

“The tribunals,” he added, “are making the law, but we should be doing that and tribunals administering it,” lie said. “It i san outrage that in one centre a man fails and, in another, he is exempt.” He suggested that the question might be referred to a Parliamentary committee to see if a satisfactory solution could be evolved. Frankly, bo objected to someone saying that because a man was a member of a religious organisation, he could be a conscientious objector, but another , v ho for a lifetime had been a member of an anti-war organisation was supposed to have no conscience. The acting Prime Minister, the Hon. YV. Nash: That does not apply at all. Conscientious objection is not confined to religious grounds. Mr. Lee: But some tribunals are making it apply. Mr. Nash, who spoke at length regarding other criticisms which had been made, did not again refer to the point raised by the member for Grey Lynn. _______