MANPOWERED OUT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 8 May 1943, Page 4

MANPOWERED OUT

ABUSE OF UNIFORM

AUTHORITIES HELPLESS

"Unscrupulous individuals, who have been 'manpowered' out of the army but who have been permitted to retain their uniforms, are making an absolute racket out of wearing them. They are using them to obtain privileges which are provided exclusively for the fighting forces, and to which they have no claim, either legal or moral." This biting criticism -was made today by a military officer. He said there seemed to be no limit to which these men would not go, and ne expressed the opinion that far from honouring the King's uniform they were using it to perpetrate a particularly despicable type of fraud, a type which was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to detect. These men, he alleged,-buy. their cigarettes and tozacco at the taxfree prices at which supplies are sold at army canteens to men of the forces. Such sales, he says, have taken place at the Albert Street canteen, at the Carrie Hostel and elsewhere, and the more hardened individuals are suspected of having entered even the Rutland Street Drill Hall canteen and the canteen actually inside a very large military camp near Auckland. The fact that very seldom is any man in uniform asked for his military pass when making, purchases from a canteen gives an ideal opportunity. No canteen worker on a voluntary basis would dream of demanding a soldier's pass. Nor could such a lemand be easily made at a Services dance, from which civilians are excluded.

Men Drawing High Wages Inquiries indicate that some of these men are working on the wharves and making as much as £8 and £9 a week, three times as much as the average soldier draws in army pay in a fortnight. One such individual has been traced. "He has been 'manpowered out for weeks, and although he drives a truck in dungarees, I've seen him soon after knock-off time wearing his uniform again," an officer said. "Some of these fellows even get meals at the American Red Cross rooms, where the prices charged are below cost compared with the prices civilian restaurant proprietors have to meet. The charges are laid down for service men only, and they are made possible by patriotic donations and by the work of voluntary helpers in serving the meals and so on." The races are, naturally, a favourite haunt of men in the army, navy and air force while on leave. It is alleged that by no means all of those who attend in uniform are still on the strength, and that large numbers of men on leave without pay, working in civilian occupations, make use of their uniforms to gain free access to the courses. Tram conductors have no hope of successfully inspecting the military passes of men in uniform using the trams. A threepenny ticket will take a serviceman any distance on any route, and this has not been overlooked by those who are using uniforms to gain privileges'to which they are not entitled. The actual position of men on leave without pay, who have been "manpowered" out of the army, is probably unprecedented in the history of any country at war. They are half in the army and half out of it. They are still in the armed forces, because they have not been discharged, but they are on the strength of no unit and therefore are not under the jurisdiction of any military authority, and. on the other hand they are in civilian employment. If a man has been. in the armed forces, has not been discharged and is still in possession of his uniform, he cannot be barred from wearing it. He is. permitted to keep his uniform because he is still in the forces and may at any moment be hurriedly mobilised for duty. The matter of "trading" on the uniform ia one of individual conscience. There appears to be no authority vested in military departments to stop the abuse. In the case of Home Guard personnel, it is laid down that a uniform may- be worn only on parades, and where contravention has been discovered the guardsman has been reported to his unit commander, who has disciplinary jurisdiction.