DISFRANCHISED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 158, 29 March 1919, Page 7

DISFRANCHISED SOLDIERS

AN AUCKLAND PROTEST. By Telesrapb — Press Association. Auckland, March 28. A crowded public meeting, convened by the Mayor in response to representatives of various interests, resolved: "That this meeting directs the attention of the Government to tho position created with regard to the disfranchisement of returned soldiers by Order-in-Couneil of December 19 last, in which it was provided that members of the Expeditionary Force returned to Now Zealand after February 1, Wlfl, and before the date of the poll,should bo entitled to vote, as if they were members of tho Expeditionary Force; which order was subsequently revoked, practically on tho'eve of tho closing of the rolls. Tho position thus created appears to this meeting to be most unfair, and such as entitles, tho soldiers to claim at the hands of the Government, immediate provision to enable them to legally exercise their vote. The meeting therefore demands that the Government take immediato steps to make provision by renttesting or by other means, failing which ii special session of Parliament to enact the necessary provisions be called; further, if legal difficulties are insuperable, the meeting demands that the Government make provision for an informal vote to be taken on April 10 of all the me.i affected, the vote to be validated when. Parliament meets."