DETENTION NOT SUFFICIENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22183, 29 January 1942, Page 4

DETENTION NOT SUFFICIENT

Should Be Deprived Of Rights R.S.A. Attitude To Military Defaulters (P.A.) WELLINGTON. Jan. 28. “We have with us the man who will not go to the war in any circumstance,” said the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C., speaking at the Wellington R.S.A. luncheon. “AU that happens to him now is that he gets a month in gaol, after which he enters aqdefaulters’ camp and lives in comparative comfort for the duration of the war. “The association,” continued Mr Perry, “is emphatically of the opinion, and it has placed its views before the Government, that the detention of defaulters for the duration of the war is not sufficient. They should be kept in their camp for some time after the war and when they come out they should be deprived of their civil rights for a further considerable time. It is illogical that they should come out after the war and enjoy the same right to vote and even the right to stand for Parliament as you or I have. If a man has a conscience then he could not possibly object to having to pay for it in that way.” "It is not before its time,” declared Mr Perry, when referring to the application of the principle of compulsory service to the E.P.S. “There are, unfortunately, in this country a large number of people who are not able to join the E.P.S. but who are not giving any service whatever. “We have been told that compulsory service will also be applied to the Home Guard. That must come about as an absolute corollary.”