MILITARY DEFAULTERS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16853, 5 June 1920, Page 10

MILITARY DEFAULTERS.

NEW ZEALAND'S' SYSTEM

Resolutions have been adopted br ono or two Labour unions asking thao the prosecution of military offenders shall cease, that all conscientious objectors now in prison shall bo released, and that the defaulters' list shall bo withdrawn. It has been stated in this connexion that "conscientious objectors and other military offenders have been released from the prisons of the United Kingdom and other countries.' 1

It does not appear (says the "Dominion") that Mow Zealand's joractico has differed materially from that of other countrios. Tho men who have been prosecuted recently under military law have been deserters, and no country lias grunted an amnesty to offenders of this typo. They have been punished when caught in Britain, France, and the United States. Men who pleaded conscientious objections when called for service in New Zealand were dealt with bv the military authorities at the time, and those who were imprisoned .have since been released. Men who deserted from the Forces are placed by tho authorities in a different category. They include men who took the oath of allegiance. went through their training, and then deserted on the eve of the departure of their drafts for tho front.

Men whose names appear in the Defaulters' List are deprived of civil rights, and are debarred from entering the Public Service. It will be remembered that after the signing of tlm armistice tho Minister of Defence set up a Commission to investigate* individually tho cases of men wfio had been imprisoned for refusing to serve. The men who wore considered by this Commission to bo genuino conscientious objectors were not included in the Defaulters' List. Since then names have* been withdrawn from the list whenever the Defence authorities have been satisfies f that good cause has been shown. The li&fc as it stands is fully operative.