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Show SELECTIVE SERVICE WON'T TRACE MISSING PERSONS SAYS DYKSTRA "As a matter of policy, the Selective Sel-ective Service System strictly opposes op-poses using the Selective Service System for the purpose of locating missing persons." The foregoing is the opening sentence sen-tence of a letter written by C. A. Dykstra, Director of Selective Service, Ser-vice, in response to a request that Selective Service machinery be used as a "missing persons' bureau." bur-eau." The letter continues: "There have been thousands of letters received from mothers and fathers ' looking for sons, from wives lookincr fnr husbands, from creditors looking for debtors, from attorneys attempting to locate defendants for the purpose pur-pose of Instituting suit, and many other situations in which the reasons rea-sons of the person seeking information inform-ation are either friendly towaid the registrant or unfriendly. "The men who registered for Selective Sel-ective Service did so for one particular par-ticular purpose; namely, to make themselves available for military service. These men did not register for the purpose of enabling a deserted de-serted wife, a law enforcement officer, of-ficer, or a creditor to locate them. The men who have left their families fam-ilies may have good motives or bad motives. Almost without exception these men desire to keep their whereabouts unknown. "It Is not the function of the Selective Sel-ective Service to correct the morals of the United States, to collect alimony ali-mony from delinquent husbands, or unpaid debts from delinquent debtors. debt-ors. While these results may be favorable, the results are inconsistent inconsist-ent with furnishing manpower for military purposes. The registrants themselves resent such disclosures of Information by the Selective Service Ser-vice System. To use the system for locating missing persons will render rend-er it unpopular with many men who registered for military service in good faith, and with no thought of exposing, themselves to relationships which they had left on their own free will. "While some Instances would result re-sult in the benefit of all concerned, other Instances would cause great unpopularity of the Selective Service Ser-vice System. For these reasons, it Is felt that the Selective Service System should be operated for tha purpose of furnishing military manpower man-power and not for locating missing persons. These conclusions have been reached after a careful analysis analy-sis of the inquiries received by the System." |