BROTHERS' APPEALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24103, 23 October 1941, Page 10

BROTHERS' APPEALS

REFERENCE TO TRIBUNAL DECISION OF BOARD [BV TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION*] CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday A decision to recommend that the circumstances of two student teachers who appealed against overseas service as conscientious objectors should be investigated by the recently appointed special tribunal was made by the Armed Forces Appeal Board at its sitting to-day. The board allowed the appeals, which were made by brothers. Harold Garfield Anderson and Nobledana Anderson. "Evidence tendered to the board and corroborative that had been filed showed that these two young men had been born and bred conscientious objectors and reared as such," said the chairman, Mr. F. F. Reid, S.M. "The board is prepared to concede the genuineness of their appeals and to allow them, but their demeanour was such as to suggest that neither appears to have any sense of his responsibilities as a citizen of the community. _ The board therefore takes the exceptional course of recommending that their circumstances be inquired into by the recently appointed special tribunal at the earliest possible opportunity with a view to determining whether suitable alternative employment, cannot be found for them immediately.'

Harold Garfield Anderson said that three members of his family had appealed against military service on conscientious grounds in the last war and all the appeals had been allowed. His father was a United States citizen and had appealed in that country. He had held his views all his life and when at secondary school had refused to do military drill. Questioned by the chairman. Anderson said he still held the view he had previously expressed to the board that nothing should be done to protect women and children from wounding or destruction. If children under his care were wounded by bombing he would aid them medically. He had very little first aid experience. The Chairman: You are quite prepared to be educated and trained at the country's expense and do nothing whatever to help it ? Anderson: Except in a civil capacity. Nobledana. Anderson, who explained that he shared his brother's views, added that if everybody shared his views there would not be any war. He was not there to say how it could be stopped. He knew that if he were in Germany and refused military service he would be put in a concentration camp, but this was a free country, he hoped, where he was free to speak. 'T know what would happen to me under Hitler, but because I come here in a free country. I am looked upon as a criminal, a coward and a slacker." said Anderson. He added that he would do anything in a. civil capacity, but nothing under military control.