DEATH PENALTY

Evening Star, Issue 23380, 25 September 1939, Page 2

DEATH PENALTY

R.S.A. SEEKS ABOLITION UNJUST IN CIVILIAN ARMY *[Peb United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, September 24. The abolition of the death penalty for New Zealand troops on active service is being sought by the executive of the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association. Tho matter has already been taken up with tho Government, and the president, Mr J. W. Kendall, saitl the Minister of Defence (Mr Jones) had assured him tho Government would give every consideration to the request. As old soldiers, Mr Kendall said, the Auckland executive considered the death penalty was unjust for what was after all a civilian and not a professional army. If a man deserved punishment he should be given it, but there was no call for execution. In the Great War the Australian forces did not have the death penalty, and it was considered by the executive that New Zealand should follow suit. Men could break down at war through no fault of their own, but while they might prove medically unfit for Trent trench work they could still be usefully employed at some work behind the lines. It was felt, therefore, that the death penalty should be removed, and that if punishment was needed some other form should be meted out, and if a man had acted in a certain way through no fault of his own, he should be treated as medically unfit for tho job he had been performing and possibly given other work.