MILITARY DEFAULTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1919, Page 5

MILITARY DEFAULTERS.

BOARD'S INVESTIGATION'S. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Jail. 9. The board that is to investigate the .cases of the military defaulters now in detention, with the object of determinings their status under the legislatioa of last session, will not have an easy tank. The law provides for the. jssue of a defaulters' list, containing the names, of all the men who refused or evaded service in such a way as to "indicate, in the opinion of the Minister of Defence, an intent permanently to evade or refuse to fulfil their obligating" during the war But a man who has been convicted by court-martial nee«l not be placed on the list "if tho Minister for Defence is satisfied that suchs oii'eliee was due to the offender's bonfc lide religious. objections to military service." The men now in prison as military defaulters, several hundred in number, include objectors of all types, front the man who could have secured exemption on religious grounds if he had chosan to lodge an appeal to the mere rebel and coward. The military service law* allowed exemption on religious grounds only to Quakers, Seventh Day Ativentiats ami Christadelphians. It is 'admitted that some of the men who went to prison for refusing military serii ice were bona fide religious objectors 'who did not come within the scope of the exemption provision, and who, therefore, were treated just the same as tho defiant objectors. These men are to' bfe sorted out now, as far as possible, ■in order that they may not have their nauie3 included in the defaulters list. The men whose religious oNjaations were allowed by the Military -Service Boards were drafted to the Statfi .farm at Levin and employed there "by' the .Agricultural Department at sWldiera' rates if pay. These men are to be demobilised shortly. They are n.wt defaulters, ainct; they have . rcndortal the equivalent service provided fov■■ them after their objection to military SArVice on religious grounds had teen established.