<Local Ex Board Robeson Co.>

November 13, 1917.

Mr. Thos. L. Johnson,
Chairman Exemption Board,
Lumberton, N.C.

My dear Mr. Johnson:-

Replying to yours of the 9th, I beg to say that I advised the father of Carl Thompson that I was in favor originally of a classified registration, and later on I submitted to the War Department a classification of registrants which is substantially embodied in the new regulations. In submitting this proposition I insisted that it should be made retroactive. While accepting my recommendation for the classification of registrants the War Department emphatically turned down the suggestion that it be made retroactive. I had a talk with the Provost Marshal General, and with the Secretary of War, both of whom said that the proposition to make the plan retroactive could not for a moment be considered. I advised Mr. Thompson of the attitude of the War Department and told him that that phase of the case had passed the realm of discussion. On November the 6th in outlining the new regulations, the Provost Marshal General in a letter to me, says:-

“There may be some pressure brought to bear to reopen cases already decided, and apply the principles of the new system in the reconsideration of matters already resolved under the old. It cannot be too strongly impressed that this absolutely impossible and cannot even be considered.”

Under these instructions which simply repeat what the Provost Marshal General and the Secretary of War said to me in person, it would be the essence of disloyalty on my part and on the part of any local exemption board to attempt to give any retroactive effect to the new regulations. It is not a matter that you are at liberty to consider at all.

Very truly yours,

Governor.

B-G