MILITARY DEFAULTERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 30, 30 October 1918, Page 4

MILITARY DEFAULTERS

UNEARTHING LOST RESERVISTS. The general public has but a faint conception of the mass of work that has fallen upon the Defence Department (or least tho particular branch responsible) in connection with absentees, deserters; shirkers, and military defaulters of all colours, creeds, and nationalities, who from various causes—some accidental but more often deliberately-and wilfully engineered—have failed to concentrate at aopointed times and places. The total number of me:i drawn under the Military Service Act. 191(i, up to and including the twentv-fcrst ''.-allot, was 140,58!). Oi this total 10,460 men failed to parade, but notwithstanding the fnct that a goodly proportion planned and schemed to avo:d discovery, the Director of Personal Services, whose branch the Adjutant-General has made responsible for unearthing lost reservists, has succeeded in satisfactorily accounting for 8352 All possible channels of inquiry are followed to trace balloted reservists who are .posted as missing, and it is not until these inquiries have been exhausted that the names nre gazetted under Section 13 of the Military Service Act.' It may be explained that the statute provides that tho G'nzetfe notice requiring these reservists _to report nt any time and place for medical examination shall lie deemed to be equivalent to personal service of such order, and that those who fail fo co report may thereafter lie arrested as deserters or defaulters. Un to the present time 4015 missing reservists have been thus gazetted, and of this number no less than 2325 have been secured, in various portions of the Dominion without the aid of warrants. Warrants to the number of 259!) have been issued foe the airiest of missing deserters, and of these 1285 are still in the. hands of ihe police unexecuted. . / A great deal of criticism has been levelled at the Defence Department from time to time because of its alleged lack of energy in its efforts to bring military defaulters to book, and it is hoped thai the figures now furnished will help the public, and particularly the and friends of the Mhliers who have shouldered their- burdens and gone forward to fight and die for their country, to more correctly appreciate exactly what has been, and is being, done' to locate lost reservists. i Mis of men about whom information is sought have been prepared according to the several jn'oup recruiling dislr-cts, and these have been widely circulated tor general information. Iho Deface authorities will always 'be pieced to receive information that will .'iifislactonly account for any of these missing reservists In this connection it is specialty desired to direct the attention of emto tho duty that is imposed upon them ljv Section 41 of ihe Military Service Act to take all passible precautions against employing a. deserter or military defaulter. The statute provides for the imposition of a vwv heavy penalty on anv employer who is conv'ded of tli" offence, the minimum fine beiin £50. itis the practice of the authorities when 'any deserter is discovered, lo make nil! inquiries as to his employment immediately preceding arrest, with a view, to action beimr taken aeainst the; employer under the above-mentioned section of the Act.