Yours of the 8th In Re sundry delinquents in McDowell county received and carefully considered.

My opinion is, and in this opinion both Major Langston and General Young concur, that the Local Exemption Board of McDowell county has the right to cancel the charge the charge of delinquency against these registrants and send them to camp as regular drafted men without any charges against them. When they reach the camp they will then be treated just as other drafted men are, as there are no charges lodged against them by the military authorities.

If, however, you deem it better, or if the registrants themselves prefer, you can write a letter to the Commanding Officer of the camp along the lines of the letter I am writing to said officer, which letter I herewith enclose, and you can send this letter with yours, if you see fit.

I send you also several letters signed by me with the name of the camp and of the deserter left blank, so that if you have any deserters in your company who desire to come in voluntarily and go back to camp, you can give to each one of them one of the letters with his name inserted to carry back to camp. This has been done in a great many cases in North Carolina, and I have heard of no complaint. I am exceedingly anxious for these men, both delinquents and deserters, to put themselves in good standing, and I trust that you will not weary in your efforts to get every delinquent and deserter in your county to come in and take advantage of the proposition that is now before them.