CONSCRIPTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2908, 21 October 1916, Page 10

CONSCRIPTION

ENSURING FAIRNESS

PROVISION OF SAFEGUARDS

The rules and regulations that are to govern the enlistment of men for tile .Expeditionary Forces under the compulsory clauses of tho Military Service Act are not yet before the public in a complete form. Many points of procedure have required careful consideration, and the officers who are dealing with these matters have given a great Seal of time and thought to the f raniing of rules that will be at once fair to I the men and effective from tho point of view of the State. Tho regulations will have to be given their final form before men can be taken into camp under the "family shirker" clause of the Act, and it may be expected, therefore, that they will be gazetted in the very near future. A suggestion occasionally made by opponents of conscription is that wealth and social influcnco may assist some men to escape their fair share of tho burden of enforced service. This is a point that has received the close attention of the authorities. There can bo no favouritism at tho ballot, which will be conducted under the eyes of a Magistrate and other witnesses by means of a barrel .containing numbered marhies. Every man who is selected by ballot will have to go beforo aMedical Board for examination, and if he is passed as fit he will have to serve unless ho can convince a Military Board, sitting in public, that he ought to stay in New Zealand, or unless tho Ministry of Munitions asks that ho shall be granted temporary exemption. The rules governing the work of tho Medical Boards will be designed to prevent the personal factor having any weight at all. No reoruit drawn by ballot will be examined by a doctor from his own district. TTie medical men examining recruits in. Wellington, for example, will bo drawn from some other part of the country, in order to reduco the likelihood of their having personal acquaintance with the men, and this rule will be followed throughout New Zealand. Then the recruits will ha known to the doctors by numbers and not hy names, and they will appear before the Medical Boards _ stripped ready For examination. A military officer will bo present, and will fill up cao.k man's "personal history form" from the information provided by the doctors as they proceed with their examination. The w'hole method will be entirely impersonal and businesslike. The system of balloting has been described already. Each member of the Expeditionary Force Reserve is to bo represented hy a card in the main roll, which is being compiled by the Government Statistician. The portion of tho roll representing the First Division, containing tho unmarried men, widowers without children, and men married since May, 1915, will he completed first. Each card hears a number corresponding to the recruiting district in which the man lives. The cards are being placed in boxes arranged to hold 500 cards each, and the cards in each box will ho .uumoercd from 1 to 500, some blank cards being included to allow for subsequent additions to the roll. A barrel containing 500 marblrj;, numbered from 1 to 500, will be used for purpose of the ballot,'and if No. 75, for example, is drawn, then the corresponding card will be taken from each box. If the ballot is being applied to certain districts, and not to others (in order to cover shortages), the cards of men not living in the districts concerned will bo returned to the boxes when drawn. District rolls are to be prepared as quickly as possible, .but they will not bo used in the ballot, for the present, at any rate.' Tho main roll can be made to servo all purposes under the I system described, and it will have the advantago of being up to date at all times, since tho Government Statistician will make every correction and addition that is Drought under his notice day by day. The district rolls will be printed and copies will be sent to recruiting committees, local bodies, and the police with tno object of having them checked and made as complete and accurato as possible. The number of corrcc-r tions to bo made probably will bo large, and the process will take time. Tho question of exemptions interests a great many people. The general rulo laid down by tho Recruiting Board and Defence Headquarters.is that there will be no exemptions in tho full meaning of the word. Certain men may bo retained in New Zealand because they aro working in essential industries, or because their enlistment would bo contrary to tho-public interest, or a cause of undue "hardship to themselves or others. The Military Boards will consider applications under those headings. But the exemption will always he temporary, and to some extent it will" be subject to the chances -of the ballot. For oxample, John Smith, a member of tho First Division of the Reserve; may be drawn in the ballot, and may ask for exemption on the. ground that his services aro essential hi. some brancli of war industry, or that le is tho sole supporter of a widowed mother and a family of brothers and sisters. Tho Military Board may then suspend the case of John Smith. But if Smith changes his employment, or .if his circumstances are altered, his case will come Before the Board for review. At the present time coalniiners and policemen are not eligible for enlistment. But if the policeman succeeds in resigning, or if the miner discards his pick, then ho becomes eligible at once. The position will he similar when conscription is being enforced. If the object of tho Defence authorities is achieved, the rules For exemption will provide no cover for the shirker.