MILITARY SERVICE BOARD

Southland Times, Issue 17934, 27 January 1917, Page 5

MILITARY SERVICE BOARD

' AUCKLAND SITTINGS. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, January 26. The Military Service Board held its first sitting in the city to-day, when 37 appeals were taken. Of these, sixteen were lodged by the Railway Department on behalf of railway servants, and the majority of the remainder were individual applications from men under Clause S5. Bishop Averill asked for exemption on behalf of three of his clergy, viz., Chap-lain-Captain Clive Mortimer Jones, Geo. Trevor Robson, and Clarence Bouchier Wilmot. The Bishop said that the clergy whose names had been drawn in tlie ballot held commissions as Captain Chaplains, and all had volunteered for the front. Robson had been expecting to be called up for the past fifteen months. Ke, as Bishop, was quite prepared to send any number of clergy as chaplains. If they had to go under- conscription, however, the Diocese would be so devastated of clergy that very probably they would not have proper men to send. The Bishop went on to say that every philosophic student had already gone, and no men remained to draw upon -as clergy. Major Conlan wished to make it clear that, if the clergymen were called up, they would retain their commissions as Chaplain-Captains, which in any case could not be taken from them. They would bo put on a waiting list until a suitable opportunity for making use of their services arose. The same principle applied to the medical profession. The Board decided that, as the thre* men had already volunteered, the appeal would be allowed. As regards the rail way men, fourteen appeals were allowed and two were withdrawn, one on account of the fact that the man had left the service of tlie Department, and the other on the ground that the man had already been granted exemption. Bight of tlie individual appeals were withdrawn, appellants in most cases having been passed as fit for home service only.