MEN CLASSED AS DEFAULTERS

Southland Times, Issue 24835, 29 August 1942, Page 4

MEN CLASSED AS DEFAULTERS

Reservists Who Refuse Operations Criticism of the dispartiy in. the consideration given to the conscientious objector to military service and that given to the man who is prepared to serve his country but refuses to undergo a medical operation was made by Dr A. Owen-Johnston, president of the Invercargill Returned Services Association, at a meeting of the District Council of the association yesterday. He referred to a remit adopted at the annual conference of the New Zealand Returned Services Association, which declared that no recruit should be adjudged a military defaulter because he refused to submit to an operation ordered by a medical board. “It is absurd to think that the man who appeals on conscientious grounds gets off bebause the tribunal which hears his objection believes it to be true, and that the man who has a physical defect does not refuse service but refuses an operation and is classed as a defaulter,” commented Dr OwenJohnston. “It is strange that the man with the mental kink is let off and the man with the physical defect is sent to a detention camp.” A country member suggested that the man who refused an operation should be sent to camp and tried out to see if he could stand up to the demands of Army life without the operation. Dr Owen-Johnston: The individual has a right to say whether an operation shall be performed on his body. Whether he is wise in so doing is another matter. The refusal should not be over-ridden by making the man a defaulter. The man has expressed his desire to serve his country. One feels that the present state of the law is unreasonable. If the authorities labelled all conscientious objectors as defaulters it would not be so bad, but if the tribunal believes their story they are not made defaulters.

It was reported that a report on Parliament’s consideration of the remit had not yet been received.