EXEMPTION FROM ACTIVE SERVICE.

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13851, 31 August 1918, Page 2

EXEMPTION FROM ACTIVE SERVICE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As a father of three soldier boys at the front (ail volunteers), and am still under the military age, I fully endorse what Mr Warren says. It is a grand thing to see a man with a little backbone in him these times.—l am, 6tc DOUGLAS LEE. Ward street, Hamilton, August 29, 1918. (To the Editor.) Sir, —I was glad to see Mr J. W. Warren'B letter on Mr W. H. Hume's case. It requires courage for a professional man, in a town like Hamilton, to write as he has done and to give utterance to what many are thinking. Courage is the supreme quality we need to.day. I am heartened to find that, at any rate, one man in the town, has it, and I tender him my thanks. I think we shall win the war, even if Mr Hume stays at home in his comfortable billet. It is a matter of his personal honour as a citizen of the British Empire. I will leave it at that. But I think very little of the patriotism of Mr Hawkins and his co-directors, who, at a time like this, try to keep three of their men from going to the front. Mr Hawkins is reported to have said before the Military Appeal Board that if these three men are taken, the directors will have to "reorganise the business," and that without Mr Hume they will be helpless. This admission of incapacity will not make cheerful reading for the share-j holders. Mr Hawkins has not got a son at the front. If he had, perhaps, he woula not shrink from the bit of work involved in "reorganising the business." Is it any wonder some of us feel bitter at times? Some of us have sons at the front to.day who went away with the Main Body. Think of it. Sticking it out for four years. Are we to keep these volunteers facing hell for our safety until the war is over, because other men, who might relieve them, stay at home here waxing fat and prosperous, and who meanly shirk their obvious duty? No sane man wiii contend that w e need three rival auctioneering firms in the town, with three sets of salesmen, stockdrirers, managers, clerks and general staff. Cannot they pool their resources? Are there no capable understudies who may, unhappily, be unfit for military service? If the directors of this company are patriotic men, lot them show a little energy and reorganise, or close down if necessary. Tt is surprising what we old buffers can do when w 0 try. There comes into my mind, r n this connection, the brave, cheerful lace of my friend Fitzherbert, late of Wavcrley Island. He enlisted at 62, and, happy warrior, left his bones before fin/,a. lint lie was a man cast in a different nioud. "He saw his duty, a dead sure thing. And went for it there and thru." —I am, etc., WM. RAXSTEAT), 3/lfiG. Matangi. (To the Editor.) Sir—ln reference to your snMeader yesterday— my letter si" ins to have cruised a greater furore thin was ever intended or anticipate'!. I ver- nuv.-h regret if I hnve hurt ; nyoi. \s fe-iinirs, but it was obviously iinavoidaVe under the circumstances. The personal element would U'-vrr hnv« bem introduced but for the fact that, MVjor Hume is a trained soldier, and those who were associated w ill: him in bis military career tell me that lie ' s ■' first.c!a j s officer. As it must have cost the

country something to make him a soldier, it ig reasonable to assume that he is more "indispensable" in fighting the battles of the Empire abroad than in protecting the financial interests at home of the shareholders of his company, of which, incidentally, he is one —and a fairly big one, too. Had the Military Service Board granted a temporary exemption to enable the Farmers' Auctioneering Company to fill his place, no one could have reasonably objected. A sine die exemption, how. ever, is quite a different proposition. There are hundreds of men in New Zealand quite capable of filling Major Hume's place in the company (some, doubtless, on the company's own staff), but his place as a trained soldier is much less easy to fill. It's men like him we want> especially as he has the advantage of being able to go at considerably less financial sacrifice than the majority of our soldiers. It is quite natural for you to uphold the appeal of the directors of the company and the decision of the Military Service Board, but neither you nor the Board seem to recognise that the man does not live, has never been born, and is never likely to be, who is "indispensable." The well-known quotation.. "The workmen die but the work goes on," has been continually proved from time immemorial—even in the cas 0 of the Farmers 1 Auctioneering Company. As to your correspondent's effusions, I do not propose to swallow their bait for a cheap advertisement. Doubtless, Major Hume will be proud of his champions. "One of them, however, challenges me to justify my status. Of course, I cannot pretend to make the sacrifices I should like to make, or that your correspondent would have us believe he is making, but for his information let me say that I am unfortunately past military age; that my onlv son has been on active service for the last three years and over in Egvpt, France and Belgium, with my consent and approval —as a volunteer not a conscript, because his country and the honour of his family are dearer to him than filthy lucre. In the meantime his wife and children are my care, and I am perfectly happy in my responsibility as lons as ho has health and strength to fight of the Empire, his country, his family, for Major Hume's champions, and the Farmers' Co-operative Auctioneering Company.—l am, etc., * JOHN W. WARREN.