NOT FOR BAD BOYS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 37, 13 February 1943, Page 8

NOT FOR BAD BOYS

EXTRA OVERSEAS 1/ A DAY

The boys of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. and the other Services to whom the Government's decree of 1/ a day extra pay for every day overseas applies will require to tell mother of one or two incidents that unfortunately happened to them and which they might have preferred to keep to themselves. Old Diggers will "know all the answers" about missing trains and trams and arriving at camp just a few minutes late; of just failing to catch the leave train due to that bally watch stopping, and such like innocent things in their war experience which, under the strict military discipline, became expressions of official disfavour in their pay books. Well, the extra 1/ a day is just for the sunny days when everything was "fine and dandy" and all the boys were good boys. The quality of the soldiering doesn't matter two hoots. If one of the lads was caught with a cigarette alight 'tween decks on the transport after dark way out in the Indian Ocean and was docked three days' pay he will not receive the extra bobs for those three days. That little final shivoo some of the lads had the night before they left Egypt for Greece, Crete and, for some of them, death, and for which they received seven days' field punishment, will cost them or their next-of-kin an extra seven shillings, for the State is not going to pay the boys for "periods when net pay is forfeited overseas."

This will be a pity. It is realised that there are in all military units, at home or overseas, the slacker, the lead-swinger and the absolute waster, but it is also recognised by men experienced in war that in many instances the bravest, the finest soldiers under fire are often the least amenable to rigid and sometimes irritating battalion orders issued after the heat and burden of battle has subsided and billets reached once more. One young Digger who was returned useless for further service owing to a permanent physical disability after having spent 478 days away from his homeland, including such "pleasant interludes" as the Battle of Britain, Greece and Crete, received an "honourable discharge," but he also suffered a deduction from the shilling-a-day extra pay because of 10 days' pay he forfeited during these 478. He had two offences of the most menial degree, he was known as a conscientious, reliable, tough little fighter who earned the highest praise not only for the pluck he shpwed during his months of suffering, but during hectic days, sailing about the Aegean Sea in small craft after Greece and while fighting the Huns, only half armed, through the hills and forests of Crete. He lost 10/ for those really harmless, inconsequential lapses from the strictest degree of military control. Surely the State is generous enough and sufficiently sympathetic to regard suffering and death as cancelling out such human slips as are indicated by paltry sentences such as three days' pay stopped. The people of New Zealand will find it impossible to justify the case of a widow or a sorrowing mother receiving a statement from Base Records enclosing payment pf overseas extra pay minus a deduction or deductions for minor offences while on service. Let the Government forget such insignificant things. If they want to make deductions, make them for something that definitely shows a disposition not to serve, such as desertion or A.W.L. for a period that is indubitably indicative of intent to evade duty.'