A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3115, 20 June 1917, Page 5

A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

" UNUSUAL CASE AT NAPIER. (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.) Napier, .June 59. At to-day's Napier sitting of the Military Service Appeal Board the appeal of John Rameses Oiley, second assistant master at tho Hastings North, School, was dismissed. Appellant appealed on the ground that to 6erve would mean violating tho laws of God, and that it was contrary to Christianity to bear arms. He quoted numerous verses from tho Bible, which were combated by Captain Calvert, who in turn quoted St. Luke xx, 36: "Then said Ho unto them, But now ho that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip, and ho that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." He also referred to the command to turn ploughshares into swords. Appellant, in answer to Captain Calvert, said the Belgians should not have repelled the Germans by force of aims. He could give no example where thn ATord of God forbade the bearing of arms, and he would have no objection to fighting in a righteous army commanded by' God. Mr. Poynton: You quoted. "Those who kill by the sword shall bo killed by the sword." If von do not do it you are not obeying the Lord. Who is to kill those brutes if we don't.? The board expressed regret that a man with appellant's ideas should teach in a school where there were-420 pupils. Appellant said he had resigned his position! __________