TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 11th FEBRUARY, 1942 IF NOT, WHY NOT ?

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4535, 11 February 1942, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 11th FEBRUARY, 1942 IF NOT, WHY NOT ?

A DISQUIETING feeling is becoming manifest in the community—a feeling which has undoubtedly been accentuated by the proceedings and decisions of the Manpower Committee at its recent sittings in Te Awamutu The principle of equality of sacrifice, which expresses the policy of the Dominion in regard to the war effort in general and military service in particular, is not observed if men with family responsibilities—men who in many cases have depended on their business for their livelihood or who hold executive positions in private businesses that employ them—are required to serve in the Army before all eligible single men are compelled to fulfil their obligations. It is widely felt, and correctly so, that too many “ sine die adjournments ” have been granted; that a more searching inquiry is required in the cases of appeals for exemption; and that the Committee should demand verification from independent sources of statements placed before it. In the circumstances the demand that before the mobilisation of married men is completed there should be a review—searching and thorough.—of the proceedings under which exemption from service was granted to a number of single men is incontrovertible. Complaints, which cannot be wholly dis-’ regarded, have reached “The Courier ” from numerous quarters that the rewere made to the tribunal misled it to the extent that exemption was granted in the case of appeals that should rightly have been dismissed. It would be only an act of justice if men who had gained exemption by recourse to deception should be called upon to show cause why they should not serve. Then there are the men who come under the category of “ conscientious objectors ” —though some of them appeal to be possessed of no conscience at all, while others have veiled it so thinly that the subterfuge serves only to expose “ cold feet.” These cases, also, should be reviewed and the defaulters deprived of the comfortable accommodation provided and compelled to discharge some useful form of national service. If they do not want to fight, put a couple on each ocean-going vessel carrying food-stuffs to help feed the defenders of England.