DETENTION CAMPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 4

DETENTION CAMPS

PENALTIES FOR ESCAPES REGULATIONS TIGHTENED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 11. Amendments to the National Service Emergency Regulations which have now been gazetted ; are mainly for the purpose of assisting the administration in dealing with escapes from detention camps. Explaining the new provisions, the Minister in charge of defaulters’ detention camps, Mr H. G. R. Mason, stated that, there had been a number of escapes from the camps of late, and it had been deemed advisable to strengthen the existing regulations for the purpose of coping with the position. „. . . ~ In the first place, the Minister said, it might be stated that the majority of the men undergoing detention for failure to meet their military obligations were complying with the rules laid down for their detention and were carrying out the work allotted to them. There were some, however, who were not so amenable, and the regulations were intended to act as deterrents for them and others who might assist them. Punitive Provisions It was not practicable or justifiable, Mr Mason said, owing to the manpower position, to employ large numbers of guards and overseers in the defaulters’ camps, and consequently those who were not prepared to accept the conditions under which they were detained might resort to escape m the belief that on- recapture the courts would impose only the nominal penalty of a short term of imprisonment, thus making the prospect of a period of liberty attractive to them. The amending provisions not only empowered the courts to transfer a defaulter to prison for the duration of the war on the ground that he escaped or repeated the attempt to escape, but that the time lost from detention during such escape must be made up after the termination of the war. It also now became an offence under the amending regulations for any person to procure, or persuade, or assist any defaulter to escape, or to aid, conceal, or harbour him after he had escaped. Similarly, under these provisions any employer must not employ or retain in his service any defaulter who had escaped from detention, or was absent without leave A further amendment declares that no person shall withhold from the Director of National Service or any police constable any information in his possession which may be of use in pnabline any defaulter who has escaped to be found. Other new amendments render a defaulter who commits an act of violence in detention camps liable to be transferred to prison for the duration of the war and in the case of escapees give powers of arrest to detention officials. There is a provision for the transfer to a prison hospital on the report of a medical board or registered practitioner, of any defaulter requiring medical observation or treatment which cannot conveniently be carried out or given in a detention camp. Compliance Essential

The detention system, Mr Mason said, had been developed to ensure reasonable conditions so long as the men being detained were prepared to comnlv with the rules and perform the necessary work. Under the existing provisions and so long as they remained in force these men were deprived of their freedom for refusing to fulfil their obligations under the National Service Emergency Regulations. If following this delinquency they refused to fall in with the established system of detention or seek the way of escape, there was no alternative but to have recourse to these additional provisions.