N.Z. SOLDIERS OF ENEMY EXTRACTION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 263, 23 October 1916, Page 2

N.Z. SOLDIERS OF ENEMY EXTRACTION.

WITHDRAW FROM THE FRONT LINE.

A London correspondent writing under date of September Bth, says: —As the result of the desertion to the enemy of a New Zealand soldier who turned out to be entirely of alien parentage, the New Zealand military authorities have had to consider the whole question of the employment, as soldiers, of men deriving their extraction .from foreign parentage. This,_ they have had to do purely as a precautionary measure, and with considerable reluctance, inasmuch as the loyalty of the men referred to han always been above suspicion, There is no individual case in which there has been reason for doubting the sentiments of those New Zealand soldiers who happen to be of foreign birth; but, as a matter of precaution, it was decided that men of enemy extraction should be withdrawn from the front line, and redistributed in employment in other capacities. In pursuance of this decision seventy men’from various units were brought back to England this week from France, and put on the strength of the reserve group at Sling, whence they will be distributed as opportunity occurs. They will probably be engaged in the labour companies on lines of communication. It is fair to state that a considerable number of these men are Croats from the north of Auckland, and that their enemy extraction is purely technical, inasmuch as the Croats are one of the Slav nationalities who hope to be liberated from Austria by the present war. ;