SERIOUS ERRORS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 10 July 1917, Page 4

SERIOUS ERRORS.

The Defence and Military authorities no doubt are at their wits end in endeavoring to avoid inaccuracies in connection with the multiplicity of names they have to deal with, ami much may be forgiven them. But the most recent errors are too serious to be allowed to pass without protest. Yesterday we published a paragraph showing the injustice of the wrongful inclusion of a young man in the Gazette notice calling up certain men under penalty of punishment for desertion. Now we see " from other papers published between here and Wellington that the same sort of thing has been discovered. One man put under the stigma of being a deserter is with the 27th Reinforcements; four others presented themselves for medical examination and were not examined because the Medical Board had not time to complete its work; another volunteered and sailed from New Zealand some time ago; two others died over a year ago, one of them being killed in action. The thing is a scandal. That men who have given their services, men who have died doing their duty, should be held up to reprobation by being classed as deserters unless they appear before the Board by a certain date is one of the most cruel things possible. If the military authorities cannot ensure more accuracy than this the newspapers must decline to republish the Gazette notices. Apart altogether from the moral discredit of the thing, actions for libel would be invited in respect of the men still living. It is true that |if these notices are not republished in the papers, hut remain buried in the Gazette, the errors may seldom be discovered, and the record may leap to light in some far-off day, when a disclaimer may be less easy. But that : consideration is not sufficient to out- '■ weigh the risk of doing injustice, and \ the lists cannot be published unless the ' Department can give assurances that < their accuracy is undoubted. *