EXEMPTED MEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 25 October 1941, Page 2

EXEMPTED MEN

QUESTION OF SACRIFICE PROBLEMS AWAITING ONE-MAN TRIBUNALS The one-man tribunals set up by the Government in August, "to ensure that for the purpose of the war the financial position of objectors is to be no be tter than it would be if they were serving in the armed forces,” have still to function. Two ol’ the appoin - tees have been engaged for nearly two months on a Court of Appeal case which is still unfinished. It was pointed out in Wellington yesterday that i the longer the period before these tribunals began their work, the longer { if. would he before exempted objectors ! were required to make any sacrifice. In many cases there had been long ' delays in the hearing of appeals and since the decision to appoint one-man I tribunals, there had been further delay in fixing the objectors’ position. Points were raised by interested i, citizens ns to the problems which confront the tribunals. It was stated that 1 many of the objectors were men in j their early twenties and not at a stage in life where they had established | themselves in their trade or profesj sion. The result might well be that 1 taking into account a private soldier’s j pay, and the fact that he was kept, clothed, and given medical and dental ; attention, some objectors might be worse ofT financially than the soldier. J Were these objectors on low and medi ium wages to make no sacrifice at all j or, at the other extreme, were they to j j be paid a subsidy? The army private received 7s a day plus his full keep and clothing, for ; j which an allowance of 30s to 35s a \ week could be made, to bring his full j ' income, on paper, to £3 19s or £4 4s ! j a week, it was stated. Assuming an objector to be earning £l5O to £2OO a year, out of whi\h 2s in the pound lax had to be paid, he would be worse ! off materially than the private soldier. What would the tribunals do in j a case like this when the objector’s j financial position was "no better than j > :t would be if he was serving in the ’ • 1 armed forces?” L i Soldiers unfit for active service and i • 1 employed on home duties in positions ' > | where they were required to find their j • | C wn board and quarters, got a subsis- i ’ ' tence allowance of 17s 6d a week. Was I • | this to be the measuring rod for the t j allowance which presumably tribunals 1 Would have to take into account for an , s < bjector's board and lodging? It aps peared that if 17s 6d was considered by j ■’ ' the State a sufficient allowance for a , ; . soldier to boaflcl himself, then it should j >F * also be sufficient for an objector. j ! There was also the question of the ; J allowance made to soldiers for widow- ! , : eel mothers, or dependents such as . !' | wives of soldiers who were married j ’ j at a time which did not bring them j 1 within the category of married men l f., r service purposes. This allowance j 5 ! was £1 Is a week. Such being con-I ! ! sidered sufficient for a soldier’s mother j i. or wife, it should also be the right one i for similar dependants of an objector, j i ; Soldiers certainly had to make a i (compulsory allotment of 2s 6d a day to s ! dependents as well as allot 2s a day 1 either to their own account, or if they liked the full 4s 6d a day could go to e their dependant. The soldier did this -. at the expense of reducing his net i j weekly pay to £1 11s 6d, if he made 0 only the compulsory allotment, or to 1 17s 6d a week, if he gave his dependant f the benefit of the extra 2s a day he ® had to allot to his own account. An- , other point made was that the objector _ in civil life had expenses such as transport to and from his work to meet.. These would have to be taken into acn count. . Those who raised the various points v mentioned stressed their opinion that _ it appeared that unless an objector _ was earning at least £5 a week and bad no dependants, he would not be called on to make any monetary sacri;t fices at all. Even those earning up to 5 £6 a week, if the factors outlined were 0 taken into consideration, would sacris fice only a few shillings a week.