The Hawaiian gazette., 1918-08-16
DRAFT TANGLE IS "
NOWBEF0REARMY
,DE|PARI|il|Al|IE:EIHEAD
Issue Between Captain Field and
Hawaii Board Resolves
550lnto Question of Veracity
WIRELESS MESSAGES
H'faSEnT TO HEADQUARTERS
win Settle Question of Who Gave
/ MISLEADING Information" To ,
,a,PFeSs Of the Territory :

"
The issue, between Captain H. Good.
ing Field and the East Hawaii draft
board over the Hawaii draft mix.up
has resolved itself into n question Of
veracity, according to the Hilo papers
That is the way IL is put by the Trib,
une, while the Post Herald, in an edi.
torial ON the matter, leaves no doubt
as to whom IL believes to have been
giving misleading information" /" to
the press.
Whether or not the public will ever
be officially Informed as to who is to
blame for the mix-up that resulted in
ineligible TegistTants from Hawaii be-
ing sent to, Honolulu and then turned
loose on the street, penniless and hun.
cry, to shift for themselves, army de.
partment headquarters undoubtedly
knows by this time. The Hilo Tribune
says in its issue of last Saturday that
duplicate copies of orders received by
the East Hawaii draft board from Cap.
tain Field have been forwarded to de.
partment headquarters
Captain Field has persistently denied
that he ordered the East Hawaii draft
board to send all Class ! registrants to
Honolulu, irrespective of deferred
classification, but the draft board says
he did issue such an order, both verbal.
ly and by wireless, and that il has the
wireless messages to prove the truth
Of the assertion. 1t is known positive.
Iy that the wireIss messages were re-
ceived from Captain Field. With
copies of those messages now in the
hands of the higher authorities at de-
partment headquarters, the truth can
NO longer be suppressed
The Hilo, Tribune, dealing from a
news standpoint with the situation,
says;
Record Must Decide
1.-THE issue between Captain Field
and the East Hawaii draft board is one
of Seraeity and must be decided on the
record.
Captain Field says that his instruc.
tiOns we're TO send only men who were
physically fit. This fatty contradicts
statements of the East Hawaii board
published in The Tribune, in which
Chairman Smith said his instructions
we're to send all Class men, and that
he could prove IL by copies of the writ.
ten orders
: Identical instructions, the Captain
insists, were sent to all draft boards,
and only the East Hawaii board fail
ed carry them out Moreover, he says
many, Hilo draftees arrived in Homo
lnlu without induction papers or certi,
fcates of physical examination. There
was nothing to show that they were
the men they said they were and, in
such circumstances, the army could not
accept them.
As II Seems TO FieId
90 1t seems he said, 'as If the East
Hawaii board got its men together in
n hurry and when they had them there
on the pier and discovered that some
of them were without papers or records
just sent them along with the idea that
it would be Strengthened out in Homo
lulu.
"As to the clause of the Selective
Service Act which provides that aliens
who have entered the United States
subsequent to July 81, 1917, and have
not applied for citizenship are not sub
iect to registration, the Captain says it
presents no difficulties, so far as his
office is concerned
"When the clause was called TO his
attention by the labor bureau of the
Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association
IL was believed draft boards had been
registering Filipinos and other aliens
as they arrived and were found.
"Such, he says, is not the case. No
aliens have been registered since July
~ 'o17 A~rent those who waived their
rights of exemption. If any such regis.
Il. ou On july 81, 1913, their cases will
he caught when their questionnaires are
presented.
"If they waive their rights as aliens
then, they may be indueted into the
army, il physically qualified Otherwise,
their resignations win be cancelled, in
accordance with the law"
Must Bat Humble Pie
The -HilO Post Herald is sorry for
Captnin Field; it hates to see any one
eat humble pie and it has a hunch that
the captain is going to have to swallow
II large slice of that nOxiOus dish. Un-
der the caption "ApoloPize, Capital" -,
the papers says editorially:
Captain II. Gooding Field has put
his foot in it badly, When he attack
cd the efficiency of the draft board for
this district and accused its members
of 'looseness whatever that elastic
term may mean in this instance-he
laid himself open for come back with
a punch in it that is liable to tOpple
him off the pins of his dignity, If
nothing worse.
Captain Field NAV be clever but not
so clever as he might have been had
things been different. There are mo.
ments when Captain Field says things
and does things for which he has rea,
SOD to repent in later moments of re.
Election. 1t is quite possible that it
was in one of these moments that he
launched his offensive against the Hilo
draft board. Certainly the moment of
reflection has already come and the
moment Of repentance is not such long
wav of.
"Captain Field may be clever, as
has been Said. lie may be very clever,
but even the most clever of us slip
mp at times. This at what Captain
Field has done He should have re.
colled that the Hilo draft board has a