ORDERS DISOBEYED

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21584, 21 November 1941, Page 6

ORDERS DISOBEYED

MILITARY OBJECTORS MEN REFUSE TO PARADE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN COURT The views of several self-pro-fessed conscientious objectors to military service were heard before Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M.. in the Magistrate’s Court, Hamilton, today when nine men who had been in the Waiouru military camp were charged with failure to obey orders. Each man pleaded guilty, some accepting the charge without comment and others expressing their views on war, appeal boards, the law in respect of military service, and military camps. All were committed to defaulters’ detention camp. , The men charged with failing to comply with an order given at the Waiouru military camp to parade for medical examination were Francis Patterson Bell, Mervyn Mills Browne, Robert George Durrant, Donald Edward Rogers and James Wilfred Warburton. Gordon Craig was charged with failing to comply with an order to parade for innoculation, while Howard William Shoulder, Edward Charles Leslie Tapp and Redvers Harold Wilson each pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to comply with an order to parade for the purpose of receiving battledress. The prosecutions were conducted by Senior-Sergeant A. G. McHugh. Refusal to Plead “I refuse to plead to that,” said Bell when asked for the plea in respect to his charge. Staff Sergeant-Major G. J. Narbey gave evidence of having issued the orders to each man and recounted the refusal to comply with them. In most instances the men simply said that they were sorry, but they could not submit themselves. Bell, who admitted the facts, said he was a conscientious objector and had appealed against service. He had already been in prison for two months through his refusal to serve. Would Not Appeal When Browne was called he denied that he was a member of the armed forces, as stated in the charge sheet, because he was a conscientious objector and had not signed up. It was explained to him that he was still a member of the forces in spite of that, and he replied that he refused to obey the order because he believed that war was absolutely negative. He did not appeal because he had seen genuine conscientious objectors have their appeals turned down. The Magistrate: How did you know they were genuine conscientious objectors? Accused: Many of them I have for years and they hold the same views as I do. “No Feeling of Guilt” “Insofar as I consider it unjust that I should be conscripted for the purpose of killing my fellow-men, I will have to plead guilty to the charge,” was the reply given by Rogers when asked for his plea. “I am a conscientious objector,” said Shoulder. “I did not appeal for the reason that I could see that the appeal boards were not functioning in the manner in which I consider the Government intended them to. I have been a conscientious objector lor five or seven years and can bring evidence to prove it.” “I have no feeling of guilt in this matter at all,” was Warburton’s reply when he was asked to plead. “I think the law itself is guilty of a grave crime against humanity in asking me to kill my fellow human beings. I would like to state that I have no intention of co-operating with the detention camp scheme or with any policy of regimentation. I am a genuine conscientious objector and thus I should be allowed my freedom.”