UNDER-AGE SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 239, 3 July 1919, Page 4

UNDER-AGE SOLDIERS

YOUTHS WHO SAW SERVICE.

Before the Military Service Act camo into operation, in MIS, strict orders were issued bv Defence Headquarters that no youth under twenty years of ago was to be accepted and attested either for homo service or for active servico with tno Expeditionary Force. No exceptions were permitted, but tho enthusiasm o he vouug New Zealander often led lnm toconceafhistraeage Many lads, somo as young as sixteen but looking fully twenty, succeeded in passing the attesting officers and the medical examiners and in getting to the front, borne o? the under-age volunteers were discovered before embarkation and men discharged from camp; others were discovered after "they had embarked and were brought back to New Zealand. How nlanv young New Zealanders managed to get away with the Kxpeditionarv I'orces before they had attained military age is not known. Iho youths were technically guilty of a misdemeanour since they had made false declarations as to their age, and there is jio doubt that sorao of them have taken their discharges without stating their real age to tho authorities. Uses have come under the notice of the pensions authorities and other cases have becomo known after the brave lads had died on aotive service. In 191 V a youth of ftyeniy years, drawn in the ballot, was found' to have already served two years with tho Expeditionary Force. Ho had been wounded in France, returned to New Zealand, and been discharged medically unfit lor further service. It need scarcely bo said that there is no penalty now awaiting tho young man who stretched his years in order to get away with the troops. No Department would care to undertake the prosecution of a returned soldier on such a charge. It may bo possible to discover presently who was the <youngest Now Zealand soldier on active servico and also who was the oldest. Ufany a man subtracted years from his ago in order to get away wltu "the boys" during the war.