Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-02

Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, March %.
OF one has friend who is low in his
mind and needs cheering up, he
needn't take him TO musical COM
- edy nowadays. or to vaude-
willie show, or to the movies" In
stead. let him conduct him to a ses
sion of one of the military tribunals.
where he will get more laughs to the
minute than the funniest farce or the
most button bursting film in all Eng
land could provide.
The military tribunals came into
being simultaneously with conscrip-
tion. and exist for the purpose of hear
ing and passing upon pleas for ex-
emption from single men who find
themselves either unable or unwilling
TO bear arms for their country There
prove to be lot of such. as is nat
ural when you consider that conscrip-
tion was necessary because there were
considerably more than 100000 single
young men in the country who failed
to enlist voluntarily. and some of them
are a real scream Their excuses for
not wishing to serve. or those that
are made for them by employers who
object to dispensing with them. are
enough to draw laughter from a cat
Not that the thing is all comedy. The
number of exemptions" that are being
secured through influence is becoming
a scandal. and Lord Derby has warned
the government in the most emphatic
of language that it threatens. not only
the success of the famous scheme but
the very existence of the empire. by
resulting in a fatal shortage of re-
cruits for the fighting line. Meanwhile
the general amusement at the expense
OF that strange bird. the conscientious
oo)ector. is becoming more and more
mixed with Indignation that there are
Engllshmen-and lot of them too
prepared to stand up publicly and say
mat they would stand by and see their
mothers murdered and their sisters yio-
rated rather than shoot a gun at the
man who was engaged in doing such
dastardly work. Feeling is growing
100. against the employer who. even
AT TINS crlsls in the national existence
persists in attempting to hang ON 10
the eligible single men in his employ.
ana VINO often has the incredible eff
Lrontery to describe as absolutely in
o1spensable men to whom il later
proves that he is paying some beg
carly wage
Perhaps the limit of excuses for bein1
Nv Iliihe 10 serve was reached yes
terday when, at a tribunal in the Mid
lanos, a young, able bodied art s,udent
appealed against bearing arms He
sara IL was contrary 10 the object of
ms profession TO take part in the mutt
Jation of the beauties of The human
1ornl He couldn't think he added of
epollinE the symmetry of any German
austrian or Turk. The tribunal re-
FUSED TO exempt him. as tribunals most
~ 10 refuse, EXCEPT rhe IL
tricts and the smaller towns Particu-
larry in the rural districts kissing in
tnis matter Is going by favor. In the
Dig centers. the tribunals which are
appointed by the local government
board. are composed of men of sub
stance. who require no favor from any
are unbiased In the country, however.
a tribunal may be largely composed OF
little tradesmen, to whom the nobleman
who owns the whole region is as
deinigod- So. If my lord objects, as he
sometimes does. to his third footmau
VINO is indispensable BILE because he brings
in the afternoon tea. being reQuisi-
toned TO fight for his country i, han
pens far too often that the subseryient
members of the tribunal see to il that
the matter is not pressed
The men who are indispensable" to
their employers in war time. One Of
Them, the other day. proved TO be a
dude" in the kind of musical melange
now known a revue" though il re-
views nothing whatever. His employer
asked that he be exempted on the plea
that he was really the whole show.
and this impresario added the state
ment. which he evidently looked upon
as clinching the whole business that
many army officers who had seen the
show had assured him that il was a
real tonic. The tribunal, however, was