MISCHIEVOUS RUMOURS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3028, 15 March 1917, Page 6

MISCHIEVOUS RUMOURS

ALLEGED FRAUDS IN THE BALLOT DENIAL BY THE MINISTER A mischievous rumour has been circulated of alleged irregularities in the drawing of the last ballot. It has been stated that one of the girl attendants manipulated the cards to the advantage of some of her friends, that tho fraud was discovered, and that a new ballot had to be taken, tho offender having been dismissed in disgrace.

"I want to deny the rumour absolutely," said the Minister of Defence •when tho matter was brought under his .notice yesterday. "The Government Statistician informs me that no such fraud was discovered, and no girl was dismissed. I think it is very improper that these rumours should be circulated. In point of fact, the drawing is not in the hands of women, as anyone who has seen the ballot machinery in operation can testify. Tho women assistants draw cards from the boxes when the numbers are called, but they do not see tho names on the cards. Nor do they remove the cards from the boxes. This is done hv tlie Magistrate conducting the ballot, and the Magistrate also may check the girls' work to st>o that the right cards have been produced lor his inspection." Those rumours about irregularities in the ballot are many, and some of them have been very much more wicked than this last one.' The majority of people reject them, but they are believed by the people wlm wish to believe them. It would ho praccically impossible for any attendant to manipulate the cards in favour of anybody. To begin with, a woman who wished to do this would have to know exactly Tier friend's number and the number of the box in which his card was. Even if a woman knew all these things, and wished to use her knowledge dishonestly, the chances of her having an opportunity to do so are very remote, because the boxes are distributed among the attendants by lot, and no girl can know what boxes slio is to have until the drawing actually begins. Even if a girl did happen to know that a card belonging to a friend of hers was in her box she could not know the number of the card with certainty, because the order of cards in the boxes is liable to be altered from day to day. But even if an attendant did. know a card and did purposely refrain from drawing it, drawing another one in its stead, and IF after she had done this tho Magistrate happened not to detect the deception, the man whose naino had been wrongfully left in the box would not finally escape military service. His card remains there liable to be drawn in any subsequent ballot. So that any plot of this kind is scarcely worth while.

There have been other stories of men escaping service in other ways, hut all these stories may safely be rejected as untrue.