ENLISTMENT DISCOURAGED.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 May 1916, Page 6

ENLISTMENT DISCOURAGED.

DEPARTMENTS ATTITUDE TO IPOLICE FORCE. Dunedin, May 0. In reply to cordial recognition from the Bench and the Bar of his services in Dunedin, Senior-Sergeant Dart (who is taking up the practice of the law in Canterbury) referred to the Government's attitude to members of the police force who desired to serve their country at the front. He said that the Government had thought fit to prevent members—so far as they could prevent them —from volunteering for service at the front. Members had felt this keenly, and he believed that the New Zealand police force stood almost alone among the Empire's police forces in this Government prohibition. Members of other police services had gone to the front and had brought fame to themselves, and added lustre and prestige to the service they had left. With all due respect to the Department, he felt that it had not acted wisely in refusing members the privilege of enlisting. Three young constables had left from here quite recently, Constables Eekford, Sterritt and Caven. They felt they had to go, but they could not go with the Department's consent, and had, in fact, to go almost under the displeasure of the Department. He regretted that the Department had not made it more easy for other men to enlist.