AS TO SHIRKERS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11644, 11 August 1916, Page 6

AS TO SHIRKERS.

Per Press Association. Wellington August 10. From time to time since the initiation of the new recruiting scheme the attention of the Recruiting Board has been directed to families .in different districts of the Dominion with two or more single sous of military age not one of whom has joined the Expeditionary Force under the voluntary principlr, of enlistment. Of course it was impossible for the Board to take any action in these cases as the decision was left entirely to the individual himself. But in response to numerous requests that some other steps should be taken to bring home to such men adne .senseof their obligation to the State and to their comrades and fellow citizens who are already at the front a section has been inserted in the Military Service Act which empowers the Minister of Defence, if he is satisfied with respect to any family that it consists of two or more brothers or half-brothers, who belong to the first division of the reserve and are not permanently unfit, to bring all j or'any of those brothers before a ; Military Service Board to there show cause why they should not be called np for service in the Expeditionary Force. The Act having now passed, and become statute law, it is Intended to bring this section into operation as early as possible, and if any cases as defined by it are still to be found when the Military Service Boards are set up, they will prowide the first business for these Boards to adjudicate upon. THE PREMIER’S STATEMENT. i Wellington,- August 10. Mr Massey, as chairman of the Recruiting Board, to-day issued a statement calling the attention of a section in tho Compulsion Act empowering tho Minister of Defence in any case where a family, having ; two or more able bodied brothers, has not sent any to the front, to call those brothers before the Board to show cause why they should not be called up. The Premier states that it has been decided to bring this section into operation at once. This will be the first business the Board will adjudicate upon.