ALIENS IN THE FORCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 October 1916, Page 5

ALIENS IN THE FORCES.

DECTSKW BY AUTHORITIES. London, Sept. 8. The 'X'ew Zealand military authorities have had to consider "the whole question of the employment, as soldiers, of men deriving theij- extraction from foreign parentage.'' This they have" had to do purely as a precautionary measure, and with considerable reluctance, inasmuch as the loyalty of thc3e men has always been aibovc euspicion. Th?re ' is no individual case in which there lifts been reason foi doubting the sentiments of those Xew Zealand soldiers who happen to be of foreign birth; but, a» & matter of precaution, it was decided that men of enemy extraction should be withdrawn from the frpnt line, and redistributed in employment in other capacities. In pursuance pf this decision, 70 men from various units wero brought back to England this 'week from France, and put on the strength of tha reserve group at Sling, whence tliey will be distributed as opportunity occurs. They will probably lie engaged in tha • Labor Companies on lines of eommunica-

tion. It is fair to state that a considerable number of these men are Croats from the North of Auckland, and that their enemy extraction is purely technical, inasmuch as the Croats are one of the -Slav nationalities who liope to bo liberated from Austria by tha present war., , , , > "