FORMER SERVICE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20630, 11 August 1941, Page 2

FORMER SERVICE

APPELLANT'S RECORD CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR HOLDER OF MEDAL Although lie had had five years’ service on the North-West Frontier of India and had taken part in two tribal wars, Charles Palk Collyns, photo* graphic processor; appealed lor exemption from military; service on the ground of conscientious objection when he- appeared- before- the No. 1 Armed Forces Appeal Board in Auckland. Another plea was .on the ground of undue hardship. Appellant said lie had been awarded the Frontier Medal in India but was “not proud of this.” As a youth and at a time when he was destitute through depressed conditions, the appellant said he had entered the army in England in what was technically a non-combatant unit. Since serving ,ih India he had come to the conclusion that any part.in war was wrong. Appellant said his appeal on the ground of hardship was based on the fact that he was still troubled from the effects of injuries and illness incurred in India. He had suffered head injuries through being dragged from a horse, had had sun and heat stroke, and had also suffered from malaria. His appeal in this regard however, was very secondary to the appeal on conscientious grounds. Pointing out that the appellant was grade 2 and would not be sent overseas, the chairman, Mr. C- R. Orr Walker, S.M., asked if he would be prepared to do non-combatant work in New Zealand as he had done in India. The Appellant; I was younger then and did not realise I was assisting combatants in their work. He added that he was not prepared to repel a possible Japanese invasion by force or under military control. The appeal was dismissed, but noncombatant service was ordered. Father Interned “I do not consider it right that I should be sent overseas to fight while my father is interned as a national of the enemy country,” said Ronald Arno Richard Leuschke, a butcher (Mr. Mellsop), in support of an appeal on the grounds of conscientious objection and undue hardship. The reservist said his mother was born in New Zealand of British parents. His father was born in Germany but left there at the age of 18 and. after four or five years at sea, he settled in New Zealand in 1908, and was naturalised in 1927. Early in the present war his father was interned at Somes Island and an application for release had not been successful. Both the reservist arid his father had been members of the German Club, the latter being president for a period.

All his father’s relatives were in Germany, the reservist said, he was a British subject himself and was prepared to serve in New Zealand. “I do not think that in the circumstances the reservist wo.uld be sent overseas,” said the chairman in dismissing the appeal.