TREATMENT OF C.O’s.

Grey River Argus, 14 May 1945, Page 3

TREATMENT OF C.O’s.

N.Z. AND BRITISH SYSTEMS p.A, AUCKLAND, May 12 A letter describing the treatment of conscientious objectors in Great Britain has been published here after the names of th e following wellknown people: Vera Brittain. Laurence Housman, C. E. M. Joad, Ethel Mannin, Bertrand Russell, Sybil Thorndike, E. W. Birmingham, Henry Carter, and Charles E. Raven. “We understand that the vexed question of conscientious nbje pt ors is having some attention in New Penland,” states the letter. “In Great Britain the machinery has undoubtedly worked well, and though there have been occasional outbursts of prejudice on both sides, the community at large has accepted, the wise treatment of the whole subiecL” The letter states that under the National Service Act introduced at the beginning of the way. conscientious objectors in Britain must annear before local tribunals, with a right of appeal to the appellate tribunals. According Io the Ministry o r Labour statistics to . the end of 1944 the local tribunals have heard some sixty thousand cases, and more than 70 per cent, of them have been recognised as genuine, and registered either as unconditionally (4.8 per cent.), or conditionally on . doing some civil work on the land in hospitals or civil defence (37.7 per cent), or for non-combatant duties in th" forces (28 per cent). Those who have been denied exemption and have still refused service in the forces have been prosecuted and imprisoned, but although some have been sentenced several times, the sentence has always been within the limits laid down by law, and not often mor more than one year. “No conscientious objector—and for that matter no other Briton—has been interned or indefinitely detained for refusing service, and we - know that there is a good deal of disquiet in New Zealand about the indefinite detention of more than seven hundred unrecognised conscientious objectors in defaulters’ dentention camps, where many have now been for over four years,” adds the letter. “The law has ensured that exempted conscientious objectors should do useful work, and nearly, ten thousand are on the land, -either with private employers or under county committees,” continues the letter. “Manv more are working in hospitals or relief services, and some hundreds have gone overseas with tlie Friends Ambulance Unit, Friends’ Relief Service, and other relief organisations. “Others hcivp cillowed to remain in ordinary civilian jobs, where this has seemed . appropriate, /n. the main, the work is left to the supervision of ordinary employers, and the community benefits by more willing and efficient service than it would obtain under rigid regimenWinston Churchill said in fh/House of Commons on March 20, 1941- ‘The rights which have been in this war and the last to conscientious objectors . are well known and are a definite part of British policy. Anything in /he nntnvp of persecution, victimisation or man-hunting, is odious to the British people’,” concludes the letter.