CAMP SOLDIERS' GRIEVANCES

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 310, 30 December 1915, Page 7

CAMP SOLDIERS' GRIEVANCES

THEIR CHBISTMAS LEAVE.

BUT COULDN'T GET HOME.

Great disatisfaction exists among the troops now in camp at Trentham owing to the arrangements, or lack of proper arrangements, made for their Christmas leave, according to a letter received from an officer of the Tenth Reinforcements. "The Defence authorities seem to have done everything possible in granting the men three days' leave, which would enable most of them to be homo for Christmas," he writes, "but the shipping companies and Railway Department refused to carry the troops, except between Wellington and Trentham, stating that them was not sufficient accommodation. Taht is the soldiers' grievance. Special arrangements were made to provide travelling facilities for shirkers and holiday makers, but thu troops, many of whom will never sen another Christmas, were not allowed to spend this one with their friends and relatives. " Hundreds of men were longing to visit their homes in Christchurch and North Wellington, but they were forbidden to do so. They had to take the nothing which wan left after pleasureseeking civilians had been provided for. Consequently, these men have been wandering about the city during the holidays. No proper arrangements were made for their aeommodation, and, as everybody knows, many spent all Friday night standing in doorways or lying on wet greatcoats in sheltered passages. The troops feel very sore indeed at such treatment. Their grievance is against the railway and shipping authorities, and especially against the callousness of the Wellington public, which has seen to its own pleasure, and apparently been quite content that the soldiers' last Christmas should be spent wretchedly walking the streets."