MARIST BROTHERS' APPEAL

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15195, 16 April 1917, Page 2

MARIST BROTHERS' APPEAL

A QUESTION OF VOWg\ (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, April 14. Before the Christchurch Military Service Board to-day, Bishop Brodie appealed on behalf of Jamc3 Lee Tracy and James Edmund Butler, Marist Brothers teachers. The Minister had not issued certificates in these cases, but the Chairman of the Board said nbey would not depart from their precedent of adjourning the cases sine die. Captain Sprott said that since the last case the position had been somewhat altered, as messages from England said that there exemptions to religious workers had been terminated, owing to the need for men. Captain Spratt pointed out that all tie arguments advanced for Marist Brothers applied also to State schools. On the point of the vows which were made, Captain Spratt asked where the difference lay between an anti-militarist who vowed he would not go into camp, and a Marist Brother who made a vow that he would devote hiis life to teaching, or between a Quaker who made some religious vows and a Marist Brother. The Chairman (Mr H. W. Bishop, 5.M.,) said his view was that the antimilitarist's view was an individual one, while the other was made publicly and with the discipline of the church behind it. Bishop Brodie agreed that public vows made by any person should be equally binding, and entitle t«hem to be placed on the same footing l . Mr Bishop: Well, they won't be put on the same footing by this Board, I can tell you. We should have every anti-militarists in the country coming here and saying he had made a vow. Mr Bis-hop said that this matter had been considerably on his mind, and at the conference of chairmen of Military Boards to be held on the 27th inst., he intended bringing this matter up, and asking for a definite settlement of the policy to be adopted towards Marist Brothers. His own opinion was that these men should receive exemption, but other members did not think so. and thev should have uniformity.

The cases were adjourned until after the conference.