THE MILITARY DEFAULTERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 95, 16 January 1919, Page 4

THE MILITARY DEFAULTERS

. MEN STILL "WANTED." During the two months that have elapsed since the signing of the armistice soveral additional military defaulters have been arrested and put on trial. Some have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment that will carry them Well beyond the signing of the peace treaty. Even after allowance has been made for errors and for men who are outside New Zealand, it appears that there are some hundreds of defaulters still to be brought to Four months ago the records showed 1285 defaulters for whom warrants were in the hands of the police and whom the police have failed to find. Some of these men arc living'imder assumed names. Some of them aro evading arrest by keeping on the move from place to place, and a few are supposed still to b.e hiding in the bush away from the settlements.

The signing of tile pence treaty and the publication of the defaulters' Jist will not affect the liability of'the de-. faulters for whom warrants have been issued. One or two men have.assumed that .they could now return to their ordinary haunts, in safety, but tliey have been disillusioned. These defaulters , are "wanted," and there is nothing in the present lair to secure them an amnesty at any time in the future.