EXEMPTIONS FROM MILITARY SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3081, 11 May 1917, Page 6

EXEMPTIONS FROM MILITARY SERVICE

Sir,—l v. as greatly astonished to seeij that the Military Service, Board bid) gran/ted total lexemption to certain, members of the Wellington Fire Brw gade who had been drawn in the ballot;. Surely, sir, the ways of the board arU %ard to understand. Sir James Aliens appeals to the farming community tot produce the maximum. How is this ta. be done when a farmer appeals behalf of some worker or himself nj the publio interest, and he is told that*, i he must find someone over military agej rto take on the work? Are we to understand from the decision that the? hoard is of the opinion that any Dick, or Harry, men who are ally unfit or too old for the Army, can! ir 0 on a farm at a minute's notice ana perform. the work satisfactorily, while a fireman, like a poet, must be born to.-. his work? One would have thought! that a fireman's work could have bcenj satisfactorily undertaken by.men oves military age. In faot, I suggest thai? it is up to the big insurance companies; business men, and property-owners, tq form's voluntary fire brigade,-anyhow-, to relieve the First Division, during the, period of the war. Thanking, vou U( anticipation,—l am, etc., NMIU. ■