Forced to fight

A tribunal heard an appeal from a businessman whose conditional exemption from call-up had been withdrawn.

JM Hay, pianoforte dealer and music seller, Barnton Street, Stirling, asked to be excused military service on the grounds his business would suffer and his family would face domestic hardship.

A solicitor said Mr Hay developed the business and before the war employed two male assistants.

The lawyer said Mr Hay’s sister could manage the business and sell music over the counter but did not have the technical knowledge to buy and sell pianos.

Mr Hay had invested a considerable amount of capital in the business and could find no one to take his place.

Military representative Capt Motherwell accepted there was hardship in the case but felt the business could be carried on in Mr Hay’s absence. Mr Hay’s appeal was refused but two months’temporary exemption was allowed.

At Perth the military successfully appealed against granting exemption to James Abernethy, grocer, Dunblane. Another appeal by rural postmanWilliamWilkie was dismissed.