THOSE DEFAULTERS.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 878, 4 May 1917, Page 8

THOSE DEFAULTERS.

, A Better- System Wanted. " A" Gf-AIjN"-: a long' list of- defaulters un- ■ der- the-:Military Service •.'.-••A.et :-has been'. published,: and already ■ one of > •' the .men- whose names appeared in 'the' v'list, • has proy^dithat its appearance was .'a gross and . grave blunder. It plight have .been that-,, after,tlie exposures which were made of the I, grievous- blundering with, regard to the • previously published list, the names on the new list, would have been so care-, , fully checked■ with, the r Defence- Department's records': '.that no further . bungling on the part of the. authorities would be recorded. 1 But no,' like the . Bourbons, - the- ! Defence ' Departmenfc .. ? 'forgets. nothing and" leams ndthing," ■ and-' the' same old blunder has,'. in '.one ; case, at least, been i repeated. . When the list gets circulated in the'country districts■ we should -not be' surprised if '■ other instances of blundering were, to crop Tip..' It seems that there is a; most-. ■ lamentable lack of co-ordination be-i tween the' various branches of the DeV fence' Department. Whatever be the exact cause, of this all too-frequently: * repeated, blundering, the time has certainly arrived when it should eeaso.

"* . * . / * ■■■■■■ • «• . i z Whether it is open for. a man whose : name is improperly included in a Defaulters' List to bring an. action against ■■ the. Grown for libel or defamation of character, we do not know. -The Grown has. so protected itself' by the resex-va-tion of "all: errors and . omissions excepted," no such . action probably would lie. ; ' ■ • - ■» * v .It is ■; sincerelv to be- hoped that the Department will, even at this late hour, be able to devise some effective . means by which the desired accuracy 'of these Defaulters' lasts can be- secured. To the parents, relatives, and friends of a man who is unjustly gibbetted as a shirker and defaulter• the blunder is almost as galling as, to the / person directly ; concerned, and not ''only these but the whole community have a right to demand greater care on the part of, the authorities, ;