MILITARY DEFAULTERS

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 52

MILITARY DEFAULTERS

THE BOARD OF INQUIRY. WELLINGTON, January 14.

The board which is to advise the Minister of Defence in the exercise of his discretionary power relative to the removal of the names of bona fide religious objectors' names from the defaulters' list has been set up. This list is to contain the names of all shirkers and evaders of military service, but there are men who have been punished for disobedience of the law relating to compulsory service who, it is considered, may have religious reasons for their objections, although those reasons did not suffice to obtain exemption for them. It will be the duty of the board to examine these cases, as well as those of such others as may ask for relief, and to make recommendations to the Minister of Defence. The members of the board will be:—The Rev. J. R. Burgin, Chaplain to the Forces, who has seen considerable service with the troops at the front; the Rev. J. G. Chapman, minister in charge of the Taranaki Street Methodist Church, Wellington (Mr Chapman will represent the Nonconformist Churches on the board); Mr M. J. Mack, general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, and lately a member of the Third Wellington Military Service Board (Mr Mack is on the board as a representative' of Labour); and Mr C. E. Matthews, Inspector of Prisons. - . The board will commence work almost at once. Already a rough sorting of the cases to be considered has been made. The heads in New Zealand of the various sects whose members are concerned are being communicated with, and they are being asked to submit to the board lists of those of their members who are serving military detention as military defaulters or objectors. If the heads of these religious bodies can say that any of their members in prison at present have bona fide religious objections to service the work of the board will be simplified a groat deal. It is not to bo taken for granted that th© certificate of the head of a sect will in all cases be taken as sufficient evidence to warrant the striking of the man's name from the defaulters' list.