ARE YOU ENROLLED?

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3020, 6 March 1917, Page 4

ARE YOU ENROLLED?

HirnouK is a lying jade and the nian-in-thc-street is notoriously a perverter of facts, but there would seem to bo some foundation for the very generally held opinion that .many shirkers, slackers and carelessly negligent people who should have sent in their names to tho National Register did not do so; and that many more who should have enrolled in the National Reserve failed to fulfil this duty. It will, in consequence, bo somewhat reassuring to those who have felt that there was necessity for an overhauling of tho situation to find that action is being taken to bring the negligent ones to account. It is of course a difficult thing to trace out those who have shirked their duty in this important matter, and in consequence unusual powers were given to enable the police to detect offenders. The police have tho right to ask any person seemingly of military age, his name, occupation and abode, also particulars of his age and place of birth, and to question him on matters relative to his enrolment ,in the Reserve. Thus a slacker or shirker is faced with the daily possibility of detection, and for failing to givo. satisfactory answers to the questions put he may be arrested and punished by fine up to £50 or three months' imprisonment. The man who has enrolled and done his duty can take no exception to being questioned for tho simple reason that it is in his interests and in the interests of the whole community that every man of military ago should bo enrolled. No one should be permitted to escape this responsibility of citizenship with its attendant possibilities of inclusion in the ballot for reinforcement) drafts. Those who shirk or escape enrolment do so at the expense of those who do their duty and comply with the law. Our attention has" been attracted to this matter by the gossip which is in circulation concerning tho number (probably greatly exaggerated) of these shirkers, but also hy_ the action of the police in proceeding to enforce the law locally. It is highly desirable that the steps now Doing taken should bo followed up, and as thorough an investigation as possible made Those who have not already enrolled <and who wish to avoid the risk of unpleasant consequences can do so by enrolling at once.