FAILING TO DRILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 169, 16 June 1927, Page 7

FAILING TO DRILL.

DIVINITY STUDENT CHARGED. SMALL FINE IMPOSED. AUCKLAND, June 15. Application for exemption from military training was made in the police court by Alan Morgan Richards, the divinity student, who at Tuesday’s meeting of the Auckland Presbytery * unsuccessfully sought support of his attitude in refusing to undergo training. Richards was charged with failing to attend drill. Sergeant-Major Landman, for the Defence Department, said that accused had been transferred to Auckland in March, 1926. He had previously been at Hamilton High School and it was understood that he then aspired to become a non-commissioned officer in the school cadets. After he had been transferred to Auckland die had written to the department asking to be transferred to another company. He did not attend drill and after several notices had been sent him he wrote stating that he did not intend to attend as it was against his principles. He had done no drill since then. Mr W. R. McKean, S.M. (to defendant) : What is your religious belief?” „ . Defendant: I am a Presbyterian.

The magistrate: It is news to me that the Presbyterian Church takes this view.

Defendant replied that it was a logical conclusion of the resolution of the Presbyterian General Assembly passed last November which had declared that military training was wrong in principle. “If it was wrong in principle,” said the defendant, “it was obviously wrong to take part in it.” The magistrate said that exemption had been granted to members of a certain church fvhose teaching was against military training but not to members of the Presbyterian Church. Defendant: I do not stand so much on the opinion of my church as on my own belief that military training is unchristian. Ho added that he thought war amounted to wholesale murder and that he would be failing in his Christian duty if he did not oppose preparation of it. He based his belief on the command “Thou shall do no murder,” and held that military training was a preparation to do murder. Under cross examination defendant stated that when he was at the High School he had not intended to go into the church. He had not asked the Presbytery for its support, but for its views, and the resolution it had_ carried on Tuesday was what he had expected, although not what he had hoped for. The magistrate: You think you are wiser than they? Defendant: In this matter “Yes.” I stand to my own conscience. The magistrate: The State has placed upon you certain duties. I hope you do not intend to persist in this attitude. Defendant: I do. The magistrate: You are young yet and your ideas may. change and you had better go home and think it over. Defendant: I feel I must obey my own conscience before any external law. The magistrate: You will find you will have to obey an external law as long as you live in a civilised country. He added that he would not impose a heavy penalty on this occasion, but if accused appeared before the court again lie would have to be dealt with differently.. A fine of £1 was imposed, accused being allowed 14 days in which to pay.