REHABILITATION POST

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 63, 15 March 1944, Page 4

REHABILITATION POST

PROCEDURE QUESTIONED APPOINTING THE DIRECTOR (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Information on the question of whether L,ieut.-Colonel F. Baker was appointed Director of Rehabilitation before the advertisement calling for applications was published was sought by Mr. Kidd (Nat., Waitaki) in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon. He said iie would like the Minister of Rehabilitation, Major Skinner, to answer the question from the floor of the House.

Mr. Kidd said he did not know Lieut.-Colonel Baker, and wished to say nothing against him, but he wanted to know whether the appointment had been made before the position was advertised. He knew one man who had put an application in, and he was one who had been successful in winning the only Carnegie scholarship ever offered in the world for organisation. That scholarship had entitled him to cro abroad, and he had studied overseas. The Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones: Was he a returned soldier? ' Mr. Kidd: Yes, a returned soldier and a decorated man from the last war. I say if these applications had been taken on their merits, this man would have been the only man in it." The Ministe of Supply, Mr. Sullivan: Lieut.-Colonel Baker is a good man, a good soldier, and a competent administrator. Mr. Tirikatene, member of the Executive Council representing th° native race, remarked that Colonel Baker was a . Maori, and he apnreciSf' f ft, fact , those responsible for the selection gave a Maori consideration. Colonel Baker had proved himself a capable leader in battle, and prior to being a soldier had held several offices of