A STRANGE STORY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 17 January 1917, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

* RECRUITS CHANGE PLACES. SUBSEQLENT COM PLICATIONS. A remarkable story of the exchange of identities has just been brought to the notice of the secretary of the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association. When the (sth Reinforcement draft was being filled two men offered their services in Auckland. One man was passed by the doctors, and the other was declared medically unfit. The unfit man was particularly anxious to get to tiro front; the other was not so enthusiastic. The two men arranged to exchange identities, one going forward with his companion’s military papers, and the other remaining quietly at home. The unfit volunteer wont through hig training in Trontham unchallenged, and sailed with his reinforcement. He fought in Gallipoli, and afterwards proceeded to France, where he was killed in September. In allotting his pay, •the soldier directed that it should be paid into an account in the savings bank,, giving his assumed name. Now that h 0 is dead his mother apprehends trouble in arranging his affairs. The man’ s dual identity apparently became known in his unit, for the priest who read the burial service over him wrote to hi s mother giving evidence of knowledge of the circumstances. Meanwhile the secretary of the Returned Soldiers’ Assoiatiocn is prosecuting enquiries among the returned members of the (ith Reinforcements in an endeavour to establish proof of the real identity of the dead soldier.