The Sun FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1918. MATTER OF EXEMPTIONS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1329, 17 May 1918, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Sun FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1918. MATTER OF EXEMPTIONS.

There are many single fit men still in this country. A considerable number is dodging service openly or is in hiding—these are the subjects of police attention. Others, again, are reservists who have been granted exemption by the Military Service Boards. With the married men going into camp, a cry has arisen for a rc-examination of sine die cases of the First Division, and the combing-out is now in process. As far as is practicable, the' boards should see to it that single fit men should go first; that exempteds of the unmarried class should not be kept at home unless their indispensability is proved beyond dispute. It is to the Government's interest to have this done. The longer the delay in making the Second Division a charge on the State, the better pleased is the Minister of Finance, who is responsible for balancing the national ledger. But those who insist that no Second Division reservist should leave the country until every eligible single man is accounted for demand a vain thing, as Mr Widdowsoh, S.M., pointed out at Dunedin yesterday in his capacity as chairman of the Military Service Board there. Only under a comprehensive and bold scheme of transferred labour—or industrial conscriptioncould the ideal urged be realised. Conscription of labour may yet have to be resorted to, but so far it has not come within the sphere of practical politics in New Zealand. The state of our reinforcements is such that it has not been found necessary to bolster up the essential industries at the expense of the nonessential. The Dominion is building up an unusually powerful reserve at Home with an eye on the day when the "British Shipping Controlier will find himself unable to divert transports to these waters. In our opinion that can be the only justification for the department's policy of calling up the Second Division so hurriedly and rushing it into camp. The fact of the men with children being balloted thus early in the year has increased, not unnaturally, the demand for a revision of all the numerous sine die cases. Those who feel most strongly on this point can trust the Military Service Boards. These tribunals are fully acquainted with the requirements of the situation. They could not possibly lay down a principle which could safely be applied all round: every appeal must be, and is, dealt with on its merits. There are single men whose claims to exemption are as pressing as those of any member of the Second Division, and it is only common justice that the boards should give such claims sympathetic consideration. In connection with the question of exemptions, there has been much confused thinking and loose talk. For instance, the Wellington City Council, led by that energetic but sometimes too fervid patriot, Mr J. P. Luke, recently passed a resolution affirming the principle of no appeals on behalf of any of its employees. At the time that resolution was submitted to the council, the public mind was in a state of mild panic—the result of the German advance, on the West front, and the feverish activity of the Defence Department. Tims it came to pass that the Wellington City Council decided that none of its employees would be considered indispensable, and,- therefore, that no appeal should be made when they were called in the ballot. Since then, the atmosphere has become calmer, the war outlook more calculated to inspire confidence in the Allied prospects. Last evening, the no-appeal resolution was rescinded. In future it is to be left to the discretionary power of depart-! menial heads to say who is or who is not an indispensable employee. That decision is more in keeping with common sense. The Christchurch council rightly decided that it would be a folly involving danger and needless inconvenience to [he community not to appeal for those of its ofiicers whose duties could not be lightly handed over to substitutes, and the Wellington body will find, as its staff is more and more depleted, that it was acting in the interests of its ratepayers when it adopted a like policy. The ordinary city services must be maintained. To endanger the health of citizens for the sake of convert-1 ing a half-dozen irreplaceable employees into soldiers would surely be to go to the maddest extremes. The Military Service Act did not contemplate any such thing. Circumstances do not require it. It sounds well to say that no man is indispensable; as a matter of fact the statement has a strong foundation of truth. But if we are to avoid the semblance of jingoism we must recognise that there are domestic needs which must be ministered to even though the Empire is rocking beneath the blows of Ludendorff. Only those whose perspective is warped by an excess of patriotic fervour will disagree with us on that point. 1