COOKE RELEASED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 8054, 7 March 1912, Page 1

COOKE RELEASED

GOVERNMENT'S DECISION

WITH APPROVAL OF GENERAL GODLEY. Tho Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward), who is also Minister of Defence, announced yesterday that Cabinet had decided to release young Cooke, or Christchurch, from gaol, where he was serving a sentence of fourteen days. “This has been done with the concurrence of tho Commandant (Gcnoral Godley)/' explained Sir Joseph. The 'Act having been affirmed on a second occasion, there was no desire to vindictively press it further. Cooke will therefore be released at once/* *Tt has been said that the Defence authorities have persecuted the boy Cooke by bringing him up a second time/* remarked Major-General Godley (Commandant of the New Zealand Forces) to a. “New Zealand Times ’ representative, when his attention was called to the fact that Cooke had been obliged to go to gaol a second time, owing to persistent non-oompliance with tho Act and refusal to pay the fine. “All I can say is that nothing is further from the wish of myself or the defence authorities that men should suffer imprisonment on account of this scheme. In fact, sooner than have it said that the department wished to persecute anybody, X would like to see tho Government release him. I would like you also to note that in Australia cadets who absent themselves from drill are placed under detention for a period corresponding to the drills missed, but I still hop© that it may be possible for our scheme to go on without having to resort to that system." At the other end of the scale are to be found many enthusiasts, as General Godley indicated in a conversation about his recent visits to four of the Territorial capips. “In Otago and Southland I came across men who had been rejected on account of physical unfitness but who insisted upon attending drills. Tho defence authorities were in a great difficulty—it's a difficulty wo aro not sorry to get, of course—to know' how to deal with such cases, and I decided that we would refuse nobody. We 'must try to devise some .method of utilising the services of such willing and enthusiastic men."