STRANDED NEW ZEALANDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 151, 26 June 1919, Page 11

STRANDED NEW ZEALANDERS.

ALLEGATIONS OF DISTRESS. NO OFFICIAL INFORMATION. (By Telegraph. —I*res3 Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. According to the Hon. G. W. "Russell, the Government has received no official information in support of the allegations that there are cases of distress in Sydney among the stranded New Zealanders. 'He is inclined to think that they are part of a propaganda being carried on in Sydney to force the position at this end. The Covernment agent in Sydney, he added, had full powers to deal with any genuine cases of distress, and he had been cabled to to-day and asked whether there was need for more funds. On the advice -of the Solicitor-General, the Government had determined to withdraw- the previous decision as to the priority of return to the Dominion of the various classes who are stranded. Full responsibility on that matter now re-ted with the steamship owners. Communications had been received from Australia asking whether the Government was prepared to allow stranded New Zealanders to come across in overseas steamers en route to the Dominion. tlie Government giving a promise not to quarantine the vessels on arrival. The Minister said it was impossible for the Public Health Department to give a»v such promise. Sir Limes Allen stated thai he a\* not believe the siiipninff controller would allow the New Zealand Government to make use of refrigerated steamers for this work if doing so would involve the mk of the ship being quarantined and consequent delay in the shipment of frozen cargo from the Dominion.

STRANDED MEN OFER TO MAX SHIP SYDNEY. June 25. A further meeting of stranded New reiterated the protests agates G the Xew Zealand Government's treatment of them in ignoring their urgent anneal- for h>-'p. The meeting accepted offer* by two am;';ement companies to h01,5 benelt performances. A number of the men stranded offered to man a shin if it were available. A crew was r=eleeted. and a cablegram dispatched asking whether the New Zealand Seamen's Union objected to such procedure.—(A. and N.Z. Cable)