GAOL FOR FAILURE TO ENROL

Southland Times, Issue 24438, 19 May 1941, Page 12

GAOL FOR FAILURE TO ENROL

SINGLE MAN’S OFFENCE

A week’s imprisonment for failure to enrol in the first division of the general reserve was imposed on Robert Clement Hempseed, when he appeared before Mr J. Miller, S.M., in the Hastings Police Court. Senior-Sergeant Quayle said defendant had furnished three national service forms, in one of which he described himself as married. The National Service Department stated it could find no trace of his marriage. At first he refused to give any information about his “wife,” but later he admitted he had never married.

“Apparently, if defendant’s story is correct, he has been badly treated by someone and that would appear to have influenced him in the statements he made to the police,” said Mr Hallett, for defendant. In September, 1939, he had applied to enter the Air Force, but it was not until November, 1940, that he was advised he had been rejected on medical grounds, including colour blindness.

Defendant had had a good motortransport business on the west coast of the South Island, continued counsel, and he said the medical report had been placed before the transport authorities and his service run had been taken away. After defendant had lost his business he had endeavoured to obtain work in munitions factories. Being unsuccessful and left without a business, he came to Hawke’s Bay a disgruntled man, and that was the reason for his statements to the police. “Defendant's thought that the military authorities got busy and told the transport board is ridiculous,” said the magistrate. “These reports are kept secret, so there must have been some other reason for his losing his service run. Whatever he thought he had no excuse for representing himself as a married man.”