DEFAULTERS’ CAMPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 February 1942, Page 6

DEFAULTERS’ CAMPS

NEARLY 200 MEN IN DETENTION. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 16. “It is not the intention of the Government to brutalise these men, as some people would like us to do, nor is it on the other hand the intention of the Government to pamper them.” declared the Minister of National Service, Mr Semple, in a statement concerning the military defaulters’ camps. Up to the present nearly 200 men have been placed in detention, said

the Minister. They were detained virtually as prisoners for an indeterminate period. It was the policy of the Government to treat them separately from ordinary prisoners; as many were under 21 years of age, it was not desirable that they should associate with persons committed for serious criminal offences. Ideas that these men who had refused to serve their country weie living in indolent luxury and any work they were to perform was pui elj option on their part, were grossly untrue, as were suggestions that they were given special privileges. “These men are detained under very rigid regulations. They have lost their liberty for the duration of the war, and are required to work hard and long hours on what is to many unaccustomed manual labour, and for no pay and with no leave whatever. Allegations about their being provided with a wet canteen, hot-water bottles, fireplaces in their huts, better meals than the soldiers, fruit irrespective of cost, use of the baths and taxis in Rotorua, freedom to leave camp at night and visitors at the weekends by the score had not the slightest founda-

tion in fact. “I leave it to the judgment of fan* minded citizens,” concluded Mr Semple, “whether it is not better from the country’s point of view and from the point of view of the inmates themselves to give these men good and useful work to do, creating assets for the Dominion, than to cast them into prison where they will be compelled to mix with all types of criminals and render little or no service to the nation, and probably finish their sentences with an embittered outlook. It is far better to try by reasonable and kindly methods to convince them that they are travelling the wrong road, and impress on them that it is their duty to help to protect and preserve not only the liberty of the present generation but that of generations to come. To a degree the method we „ have adopted is meeting with success.