MILITARY DEFAULTERS LIST.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1919, Page 3

MILITARY DEFAULTERS LIST.

DOUBTFUL CASES, * (From Our Own Correspondent) Wellington, May 28. The official list of military defaulters, issued last week, contains the names of some hundreds of men who refused to discharge their obligations under the Military Service Act and who became liable, therefore, to disfranchisement and other penalties. .But the list aJiBo contains many names to which much doubt attaches. Perusal of the list will s.how that there are hundreds of "defaulters" with obviously insufficient addresses; there are other addresses that strongly suggest a probability that the men concerned had moved before they were called for military service.

The defective addresses cover many seamen and firemen whose names arc followed by the name of a, steainer or of a shipping company. Addresses of this kind are of very little value in the ease of men who are continually on the move. Then there are men of various occupations whose gazetted addresses are at hotels or boarding houses. In illustration may be quoted a defaulter who is described as "wool-buyer, , Hotel, Wellington."

A wool-buyer who was staying at n Wellington hotel in, gay, 1915, is not likely to have been there still when ho way called in the ballot perhaps two years later. Then the list contains men whose addresses are simply care of post offices in various parts of the coun.'ry. The rule of the Defence Department, in the administration 'of the Military Service Act, has been to place the onue of proof on the reservist. If a man was called for service, the fact of his being called was prima facie evidence that ho was liable for service. Similarly if there was any doubt about the status of a nian , the Department assumed the ytatus that would be most favorable toUhe Dominion from a recruiting standpoint. It is necessary to remember this rale in the examination of the defaulters' list. The list undoubtedly contains more names than there are actual defaulters. But the Department hay retained doubtful names unless there was proof thai they night to be omitted. The onus ot securing the omission of doubtful names from tlie list is left upon the men concerned.

The basis of the roll of the Expeditionary Force Reserve way the National Register, taken in 1915. This register was designed to secure the name, address and general status of every man of military age in New Zealand.' The roll of the Expeditionary Force Reserve was compiled in the following year, and to it were transferred many namfej end addresses of the kind already described. Then came the ballots. The ballotting officer drew from the roll, for example! "John Brown, seaman, s.s. Athenie." Then a formal notice was sent to .Toim Brown (the name has been coined fo: purpose of illustration). But in the meantime the man hay left the ship, served on various othei ships, and possibly failed to return to New Zealand waters at all. The notice could not i'.e delivered and John Brown was added to the list of missing reservists. He might be actually liable for service, so lie could not be wifely struck off the list. And so eventually he haa found his way on to the defaulters' list.

Another type of "defaulter" is the man who signed a National Register or Expeditionary Force enrolment form with his usual signature, say 1 "John Brown," and later enlisted and was attested under hiy full name, "John James Brown." The names of enlisted men were checked off against the roll, but in a case like this "John Brown" wouid remain on the roll as a man still to be accounted for. Then he would be called in the ballot and unless his relatives put the mater right he might eventually be posted as a defaulter, though Jie mr actually in the forces, Cases of this kind were often complicated by faulty and insufficient addresses. Many'duplications of the, sort have been discovered but there is reason to believe that others have not been traced and that there are names in the defaulters' list representing men who have worn the uniform. Every man whoso name appears in the defaulters' list has a right, of appeal. The authorities will be glad to receive information as to erros in the list and will make the necessary corrections wherever it is shown that an injustice has been done. But the rule p.till is that no name can be struck off the list unless there is definite evidence that it ought not to be there. If a name appeared in a ballot list and haß not been accounted for in any other way, it is presumed to represent a defaulter,