HARD CASES.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2787, 3 June 1916, Page 6

HARD CASES.

Sir,—On reading the summary of Us ■Military Servico Hill, I would lk« to say a tew words in regard to tha term "JWeiy eligible man." ' I supposj the Bill is to get at tho shirkers; why not make exceptions in extreme cases'? One such as this is an. example. A yomij} !"i n 11 my ac( l ua i ll tancß would have enlisted long ago but for the fact that htf and a younger brother 'support their, widowed mother and invalided brother, whoso case is Bach that it requires extra nourishment and a great deal of attention, for which the soldier's pay or Government grant would not be sufficient to provide these necessaries. Tho Tuothei! 13> not strong, having had a hard strug< gle to rear the family, and now when ithtf son is old enough to.earn a good wage lio is compelled to go to the front, when there are hundreds of single men without dependants. Why not class the single men with dependants with- married -'men.* a great many of whom would be betfel able to stand the. strain of war than ladf undor 21 yoargj and. could also leave theil families provided for. They, • lik« others, have something to fight for. An. Other thing/I wish to point out'is tha unfairness of classing men who married the first five- or six months of tho war with those who married recently. Most people knoft that' marriages are not arranged to take place in a few weeks; it is usually a few-months, as it takes simo time to-build and ; prepare a home. In the early part of the war there was no shortage of recruits. Just put yourselves in these people's place.—l am,' etc., ■ EIGHT, NOT MIGHT. fSiich cases as our. correspondent men' tions would bo treated on their merits by the Exemption. Board.! Sir,—May I be allowed to draw your attention to one or two matters in con* nection with the Compulsion Bill? Take the case of a single man of . thirty-five years, the only son and support of a widowed mother of seventy. Ho has a house partly paid for, and is. also insured for two hundred pounds in the State office, Should ho bo called on to serve, and leave the country, the payments'for . tho housa could not : be kept up, and it'would probably liavo to bo sold at a big loss to him. After leaving, say, ,£1 a week out of "his pay 'for his mother to live on, where is tho .£45 a year for' house payments and tho money for" ihsuranco pre- > n.iums to come.'from? "'Could not the Gov- : erniheit introduce some measure to safei guard the interests of many working : _mc'n in this matter? I-maintain that'an eld lady of seventy "will '"suffer 'far 'greater hardship in the loss of an only son than many a young married woman, in tha ; loss of a husband. The old cannot bear these things so wqll, and the younger ones havo youth and strength, and perhaps brighter prospects ahead. A case iike'tha above would be exempt in Francs and Russia.-"-! aih, etc., L.B.