TWO MEN ARRESTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 May 1943, Page 3

TWO MEN ARRESTED

AFTE| EVADING WAR SERVICE FOR EIGHT MONTHS REFUGE SOUGHT IN MOUNTAINS. CONVICTED BY DISTRICT COURT-MARTIAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. . Existing in hideouts in the Orongo-qrongo ranges, in an endeavour to esicape military service, two soldiers of the N.Z.E.F. had nearly eight months of' freedom cut short when they were arrested by military police early this month. They were Sergeant Thomas Harold Warburton and Sergeant Edward Louis Gane. who were yesterday tried and found guilty by a District Court-Martial. The sentence will be promulgated later. The men deserted together on September 18. Evidence was given of a search for them and of their being seen and spoken to by members of the Home Guard. A whare they had built and furnished with homemade seats and a table was found, and there, was evidence of their intention to remain for some time, as a vegetable garden had been laid, down and a large supply of firewood cut and stacked. Finally Warburton was arrested m a dugout on the Wainuiomata Hill. Gane was arrested at Lower Hutt, while talking to his wife. In a statement to the Court, Warburton said, food was usually bought at Moera. Both men. used bicycles. He had always been against military service, lie said, and unwillingly had been conscripted into the Army. , , Cn behalf of Gane it was stated that he become obsessed by pacificism and decided that he. could not carry on. He was a genuine conscientious objector and considered that in the circumstances he took the courageous course.