MILITARY DEFAULTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 178, 18 October 1927, Page 14

MILITARY DEFAULTERS

REMOVAL OF DISABILITIES DELAYED HOUSE AND COUNCIL DISAGREE (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monday. After protracted negotiations the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council have failed to reach an agreement on the question of the restoration of rights to military defaulters, as was originally proposed in the War Disabilities Removal Bill, and rather than have the Bill thrown out the Lower House has been compelled to agree to the continuance of resti'ictions and be satisfied this year to have the other provisions of the Bill passed into law*. It is probable, however, that next session another attempt will be made by the Government to restore the rights taken away from conscientious objectors and other defaulters. The report of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives to meet the Legislative Council’s representatives was considered this evening, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, moving that the House should not insist on its disagreement with the Council’s amendment and should accept the Bill as amended. Mr. J. A. Lee, Auckland East, who was a member of the committee of managers appointed by the House, deeply regretted that no settlement had been reached and pointed out that men who had been conscientious objectors in England became members of the House of Commons, while in New Zealand such men were deprived of a vote. He hoped that the Prime Minister w*ould bring a Bill next session to deal with the question of these men again. Mr. Lee congratulated his colleagues on the committee of managers, the Minister of Justice, the Hon. F. J. Rolleston, and Mr. J. Mason, Napier, on the efforts they had made to induce the Legislative Council to accept lha view of the House. Mr. Rolleston said that they had had to make a choice between losing the Bill altogether and accepting the amendment proposed by the Council. Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, also regretted that the Council had made this amendment to a Bill for which he gave the Government every credit. Mr. Coates said that the Bill as originally drafted conve3 r ed the opinion of the Government on the question, and personally he was very sorry that the Legislative Council had not seen fit to approve of it. He believed that the course suggested was right and proper and that it was time that any bitterness that was created through the war was wiped out. They must accept the inevitable this year. He hoped that it would be possible to get the Legislative Council to take a—from his point of view—more reasonable standpoint.