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Department of Justice.
Office of United States Attorney,
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Ashboro.

Shelby, N.C.,
July 10th, 1918.

Governor T. W. Bickett,
Raleigh, North Carolina.

My dear Governor:

We have four or five young men in this County who failed to respond to the call of the Local Board to go to camp with the last contingent from this County and they have been classified as deserters. I have been endeavoring to have them arrested, but they are dodging in the mountains and so far the officers have been unable to locate them. Today I was in communication with some parties in that section and they believe that if we could assure them that they would be permitted to enter service now without being punished for their failure to come when called that they would voluntarily surrender and come in and go to camp. I told one of their friends with whom I was talking today that I felt sure this course might be pursued along the line of the method you had adopted in Ashe and Wilkes Counties and I would like for you to write me a line to this effect. I think that we may be able to have them voluntarily come in and go to camp, in which event it would have a good effect in that portion of the County and would be even better than having them arrested, should we be able to find them. They are all in one portion of the County where it is extremely thinly populated and in the mountains where it is almost impossible to find them. They are not violent, but have merely been ill advised.

Trusting to hear from you soon, I am,

Yours very truly,

C. R. Hoey
Assistant U. S. Attorney

CRH