MOVE FOR ABOLITION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20051, 25 September 1939, Page 9

MOVE FOR ABOLITION

MILITARY DEATH PENALTY NEW ZEALAND TROOPS (Por Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. 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.

The matter has already been taken up with the Government and the president, Mr. J. W. Kendall, said the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, hlad informed him the Government would give every consideration to the request.

As old soldiers, said Mr Kendall, 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 toe given it, tout there was no call for execution. In the Great War, the Australian forces, did not have the death penalty, and it was considered toy the executive that New Zealand should follow suit.

Men could break down at the war through no fault of their own, but while they might prove medically unfit for front 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, 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 the job he had been performing and possibly be given other work.