PRIORITY JOBS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 7

PRIORITY JOBS

EX-SOLDIERS , CLAIM CONFERENCE DECISION P.A. WELLINGTON, this day. Preference for ex-servicemen in appointments to jobs was debated by the annual conference of the New Zealand Returned Services' Association to-night and it was decided that, provided a returned serviceman applying for any position had prewar qualifications and/,or qualifications gained during his* war service or rehabilitation training, equal to the pre-war qualifications of any other applicant for that position, the returned serviceman should receive preference over any other applicant.

Previously the policy of the association on this subject contained the phrase, "all things being equal."

Another resolution was that appointments of men with no overseas service to positions on local authorities' staffs, while members of the staffs who possessed equal qualifications for the positions were on service abroad, were viewed with grave concern and the Dominion executive was requested to take what action it could to have such appointments cancelled. Aliens in Business Resolutions regarding aliens were carried after a debate in which numerous speakers discussed the activities of aliens, which they considered were unfair to other members of the community. Several speakers opposed the resolutions, which were as follow:—

"That an investigation be made by the Government into businesses set up by enemy aliens and property acquired by enemy aliens, or businesses transferred from January 1, 1934, with a view to enabling the public to form an opinion whether or not the interests of returned servicemen have been prejudiced by the business arid property purchasing activities of such aliens."

"That the Government, having stated some months ago that it was considering the policj in regard to enemy aliens, be urgently requested to make an announcement as to its intentions."

"That any person or persons who had arrived in New Zealand from Germany, Austria, Hungary or Italy since 1939 must return to their own countries within two years after hostilities cease with Germany and that they be allowed to take out of New Zealand the same amount of money or property, or both, as they declared to the- Customs Department when they entered New Zealand, any further money or property that they might possess to be sold and the proceeds to be handed to the New Zealand Government for distribution among the wives and dependents of those who fought for their respective countries, while they enjoyed peace and plenty in New Zealand."