POLICY STATEMENT SOUGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25718, 14 December 1944, Page 4

POLICY STATEMENT SOUGHT

MR FRASER NON-COMMITTAL

(F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON, Dea, 13. The Government’s policy in regard to military defaulters was discussed by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in reply to an? urgent question asked by Mr M. H. Oram lOppn., Manawatu) and Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Oppn., Waitomo)in the House of Representatives today. He said that the Government’s policy was contained in the National Service Emergency Regulations of 1940. The Minister responsible for the..., administration was the Minister of Justice. Mr H. G. R. Mason, who acted under the direction of the War Cabinet.

Mr Oram and Mr Broadfoot had asked the Prime Minister whether he would give the country, before Parliament rose, a clear statement of the Government’s policy towards • military defaulters both now and in the future. They said in a note to their question that all the members of the'Opposition had received, many resolutions passed by branches of the R;S.A., and in the absence '.of such a statement they were unable to reply. Fair Administration Claimed

The Prime Minister said he could, not guarantee to give- the questioners an answer that they would consider clear. He cpuld only do his best. It was a new departure that the Opposition should be enabled to reply in regard to Government policy. . Mr Fraser said that the regulations dealing with military defaulters had been administered fairly and equitably. It must be agreed that although subject to the penalties provided which they had voluntarily incurred and to the disadvantages- of internment and prison if they persisted in their defiance and disobedience, the defaulters were not subject to the risks of sickness, wounds, arid death which were the- common experience of our sailors, soldiers, and airmen who were fighting for us, or of the great hardships .and frequent cruelties of enemy prison camps .to which the men’ who were prisoners of war. were condemned“At the same time,” added the Prime Minister, “it is necessary, that the regulations in question and their administration should be reviewed periodically and parallel regulations in the United Kingdom and other United Nations closely studied. For instance, the law provides for the exemption from military training of proved conscientious objectors. “Tt is claimed that a number of the men in the detention camps are not defaulters, but are conscientious objectors whose cases ought to be reheard. In the United' Kingdom there is an appeal, court for the purpose of rehearing such cases. Questions under Review

“ The question whether there should be some kind of reviewing authority for any who claim to .be "unjustly imprisoned is obviously a question for the War Cabinet to consider. The question of the. more effective economic use of the labour power of the defaulters in the interests of the Dominion, is another question which is being examined. “I do not think,” Mr Fraser added, “ that consideration of the question of the disfranchisement of the defaulters is an urgent matter. With the end of the war perhaps some two or even three years ahead, there are clearly much more urgent matters of importance to the war effort which demand immediate and continuous attention.” .

Mr F. W. Doidge (Oppn., Tauranga): That will not satisfy the R.S.A. The Prime Minister: : I cannot help that.