RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1329, 17 May 1918, Page 10 (Supplement)

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

QUESTION OF BEHAVIOUR

STATEMENT BY ASSOCIATION.

The following official statement has been issued by Mr 1). Seymour, general secretary of Hie New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association: — "A discharged soldier, a man whose application for membership of the Oamaru Returned Soldiers' Association had been refused, was convicted recently at Wellington on charges of drunkenness, damaging a constable's helmet, resisting and assaulting a constable, and obscene language. The evidence showed that the man had made himself the nucleus of a street riot. The Wellington "livening Post's" report of the comments by the Magistrate (Mr S. E. M'Carthy, S.M.) had thus passage:—' His Worship said lie was not justified in saying that all returned soldiers were given to drink, but a good many of them were given to roaming about the streets in a more or less drunken condition, and they seemed to be of the opinion that because they had been soldiers and learnt discipline and had been away at the front they were free of all law and could do pretty well what they liked. Returned soldiers, whatever services they might have rendered to their country, had to remember that when they came back here they must obey the law. The Court could not overtook a thing of this sort. The foundations would drop out of society if riots of this sort were allowed to occur in the principal cities without authorities taking some steps to stop it. For obscene language accused would be sentenced to six months' hard labour. On the other charges he would be convicted and discharged.'" "It is regrettably true that certain returned soldiers, in the reaction of release from discipline, are prone to drink, but it is possible that a wrong impression might rest on the public mind as the result of the Magistrate's phrasing. It has to be remembered that the number of returned soldiers is now about 20,000, and this large total inevitably includes a proportion of men who take> easily to alcohol. As very large numbers pass through Wellington, the proportion that may abuse liquor can easily bring discredit on the great majority of soldiers among persons Wtio do not pause to get the facts in right perspective. "No Returned Soldiers' Association condones behaviour of the kind condemned by Mr M'Carthy. On the contrary, every effort is made by the executives to discourage licentiousness. Proof of that sort of misconduct is a bar to membership. By every practicable means the N.Z.R.S.A. is striving to maintain an honoured name for men who have token a worthy part in the defence of the Empire. The co-operation of the public is earnestly invited for that purpose. "In this matter it is again necessary to request the press to refrain from any unnecessary use of the term ' returned soldier' in association with men charged with crime. It is well known that certain ' wasters' — slackers before they went into camp —try in Court to gain sympathy or lenient treatment from the Bench by a plea that they have 'done their bit.' In some cases the alleged record of service may be genuine, but more often the exploits may be the product of a vivid imagination. The use of the words ' returned soldier' in relation to these offenders tends to smirch the term and create a feeling of suspicion among the public in regard to returned men as a class. This is distinctly unfair."