UNFAIR TO TROOPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20061, 6 October 1939, Page 11

UNFAIR TO TROOPS

CONVICTS IN ARMY OPINION OF JUDGE (l*er Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Declining to grant probation to a half-caste Maori, Rangi Williams, aged 29, who admitted the theft of cutlery valued at £22, the property of British Products, Limited, from a motor-car, Mr. Justice Callan, in the Supreme Court to-day, stated his policy towards prisoners who plead for a chance to serve their country in the army in preference to going to gaol. His Honour referred to the prisoner's former convictions and said he accepted his desire to join the army as .sincere, but this did not justify granting probation. “Soldier. 4 have to live together very close in enforced companionship in camps, barracks, troopships and trenches,” said His Honour. “When a request like this is made I have a duty in thinking of those other young citizens who would be his companions. I would not think it right for me to use my position to inflict upon them the close companionship of a man with a bad record for dishonesty. I know that on occasions in the last war the efficiency of the forces was reduced by tlie presence of persons of bad character who should never have been allowed to go to the war at all. There were incidents of serious trouble and disaffection which led to the men, who should have been fighting, wasting their time guarding and safeguarding against these people. It is a risk I will have nothing to do with.” The prisoner was sentenced to two years’ hard labour.