MAY BE FREE IN APRIL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21922, 17 January 1946, Page 7

MAY BE FREE IN APRIL

MEN IN DETENTION CAMPS Men who have been indefinitely held in New Zealand detention camps because of their refusal to go to war are expected to be released in April. This news is reported to have been given to men in the camps. It is believed that no promise of release, however, has been given to those men classed as military defaulters who are held in Mt. Eden and other gaols. The choruses of complaint which the men in Mt. Eden have been raising every night over the last week to the disturbance of people living near the prison, are believed to have been organised by the men to attract public attention to their claim that as the war is over and their detention was originally to have been for the duration, they should be released. Most of the men in prison who are classed as military defaulters were originally held in the detention camps, but were transferred to goal for refusing to obey orders in the camps, or for some similar offence against the camp discipline. The first defaulters’ detention camp was founded in 1941. There are about 300 men still held in camps in various parts of the country. A big proportion of them have been in detention for about four years, having been committed to the camps for the duration of the war. Recent official statements from the Government have indicated that these men would not be released until the majority of the New Zealand troops were repatriated. With the return of many drafts from overseas this month and next, it is now expected that the bulk of the New Zealand Forces will be back in the Dominion by the end of February.