HARD TO UNDERSTAND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 79, 8 June 1943, Page 4

HARD TO UNDERSTAND

IN common fairness to Home Guardsmen not merely in this district, but throughout the whole of the Dominion we feel that a recent court proceeding against a naturalised Dalmation in this town calls for more than casual comment. In this instance a man who has consistently ignored the emergency laws of the land regarding universal compulsory training for over twelve months and up till the time of hearing at least ha<i still taken no measuresto carry out his duties in this connection is fined the sum of £3. In direct contrast to this we have the cases of men in Te Puke district and elsewhere who having fulfilled tfyeir defence obligations by way of registration are fined upwards of £5 for failure to.attend Home Guard parades. Here we feel must be either a penalty out of all proportion to the offence or else a complete misunderstanding on the part of the court as to tha true facts of the case. The pleas of ignorance and inability to read newspaper notices put forward as proof of the defendant's innocence and' good intentions appear to be particularly hollow when,; we note the inclusion in the later age group ballots, of Chinese labourers, Hindu farm hands, Greek fishermen and hundreds of the defendant's fellow countrymen. In many instances the reservists could neither read nor write English and yet in the case under review we are led to believe that the defendant is a man ostensibly carrying on a business and mingling freely with ail sections of the community. Why then the discrepancy.