DETENTION FOR DEFAULTERS

Southland Times, Issue 24592, 14 November 1941, Page 6

DETENTION FOR DEFAULTERS

20 Men Sentenced At Wellington

(P.A ) WELLINGTON, November 13. Twenty men, some of whom have already been fined or imprisoned as military defaulters, appeared before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., charged with failing to comply with a military order and were committed to defaulters’ detention. These are the first committals made from Wellington. The charge was that at Trentham Camp, being members of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, they failed, to give the service required of them in that they failed to comply with an order lawfully given to parade for the purpose of receiving clothing or for medical examination. The charge was laid under the National Service Emergency Regulations. The accused were Ronald James Frank Armstrong, Nathan Sydney Beatus, Roy Neal Bidlake, Clarence Alfred Board, John Cameron, Hugh Houston Dempsey, Gordon Stuart Doig, Evan Morgan Evans, Raymond Firmston, Patrick James Hourigan, Robert Duncan William McCallum, Kenneth Aubrey Frank Mason, Ronald Calverley Meggett, James Olds, Harry Edgar Palmer, Bert Powell, and Hiram Gartside Sweeney, all of whom pleaded guilty, and Hugh William Kelly, John William Rogers, and John Thomas Magurk, each of whom refused to plead. The Magistrate, in reply to their statements, said: “This Court does not go into whether you are a defaulter. You have had your right of appeal. You are not a conscientious objector within the meaning of the law because you have had your appeal dismissed.” Rogers, on saying he felt unable to accept detention, brought the reply: “I am afraid you will have to. It is not a question of what you will accept. You have disobeyed an order and you are liable to defaulters’ detention.”

None of the accused was represented by counsel.