THE POLICE AND RECRUITING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16685, 4 May 1916, Page 9

THE POLICE AND RECRUITING

ELIGIBLES IN THE FORCE DISCOURAGED. SENIOR SERGEANT DART SPEAKS PLAINLY. For some time there has been a growing feeling among the young policemen in Dunedin and elsewhere that they should bo given an opportunity to enlist in the expeditionary forces without having to resign from the force and thereby lose the service they had already to their credit, in the event of their desire to rejoin should they return to the dominion after the war. Expression was given to this feeling by Senior Sergeant Dart when being accorded a farewell by the Bench and Bar at the City Police Court yesterday. He said that the Government had thought fit to prevent members—so far as it could prevent them—from volunteering for service at the front. Members had felt this keenly, and he believed the New Zealand Police Force stood almost alone among the Empire's police forces in this Government prohibition. Members of other police services had gone to the front, and had brought fame to themselves and added lustre and prestige to the service they had left. With all due respect to the department, he felt that it had not acted wisely in refusing members the privilege of enlisting. Three young constables had left from here quite recently—Constables Eckford, Sterritt, and Caven; they felt they had to go, but they could not go with the department's consent, and had, in fact, to go almost under the displeasure of the department. He regretted that the department had not made it moTe easy for other men to go.