SPORTS BODIES AND MILITARY DEFAULTERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17029, 1 May 1923, Page 6

SPORTS BODIES AND MILITARY DEFAULTERS.

The proposal to debar military defaulters from taking part* in sport is hardly worth pursing in view of the difficulty with which its enforcement would be surrounded, and tne injustice that might be clone by its over-zealous enforcement. We have no sympathy whatever with the men who shirked their responsibilities during the Great,, War. But they have been punished by the civil and military authorities, and it is hardly in the province of sports bodies to go outside their own administrative duties in exacting further penalties. The Canterbury Rugby Union was unable to come to a decision on the matter, and referred it to the annual meeting- of the !New Zealand Union without tieing the hands of its delegates. Ihe New Zealand Cricket Council, which controls cricket in New Zealand, hafe decided to recommend the boycott, to its affiliated associations, but tbe delegates appear to hove been a bit undecided as to the particular individuals to be boycotted. In this lies the principal difficulty. It is very hard at this late hour to go into the merits of every- case. An attempt was made during- the war by a certain team in Christchurch to “ freeze out ” certain individuals who were supposed to be shirkers, but in the process it penalised men who were physically quite unfit for service and who had no chance ot being- sent to the front. Similar injustices would be sure to follow any attempt to enforce a general ostracism in sport. The sports bodies concerned might just as well keep thenmembership as open as possible, for the active encouragement of sport is one of the best means of fostering a sense of tine civic responsibility-. As for tlie boys and youths who ma-y be inclined to shirk tlieir occasional Saturday drills for tbe greater attractions of the playing grounds, the elder club members could do service to tbe military authorities not by "barring them from membership but by impressing upon them the need for carrying out their training, and hy seeing that they do it.