THE DESERTER.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 7 March 1919, Page 4

THE DESERTER.

The deserter who disgraced his uniform, and is charged with betraying his comrades to slaughter, has been located. But, being a prisoner of .Avar, he has claimed the privilege of prisoners 'vrho have the right to refuse to return to their country. The reasoning which has saved him from due punishment ij fallacious, because a man is not a prisoner of war in the true sense of the term. A man who is captured by the enemy against his Will becomes a prisoner of war. A man who goes OA-er to the enemy and does him a service usually does not become a prisoner of war at all. He becomes one of the enemy. If the enemy claps such a one into pris.on camp to save his skin ke has no right to the status of prisoner. Moreover, how have the prisoners who are returning been liberated? Simply by the successful attack of our armies. It is as if our armies had captured the'prison camp and set these men free. Suppose that any of them could refuse to leave Germany. But nobody Avonts this man to leave Germany. His country wants to send him . before a court-martial to answer the charges against him. As to the supposed right of refusal to return: these prisoners are soldiers, under the flag Of their country; bound by its' discipline'. During captivity- they have been the objects of their country's care: surely the end of captivity does not end their connection with their regiments. If so, then those who escape and get back home would be free from further service. But so far as we ..know they are not. Then, if this deserter is a prisoner he is still in the service. He has been declared a prisoner, and it has been decided that, though a willing prisoner, and therefore not properly a prisoner of war at all. he is entitled to the privilege'of a prisoner who is a prisoner against his will, and allegedly entitled to sever his connection with the service. Whatever else this may be, it is certainly a-premium on desertion. Is the world topsy-tury.=—Times