ARMY CHANGES IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23177, 14 November 1940, Page 12

ARMY CHANGES IN AUSTRALIA

. # ACTIVITIES OF NEW MINISTER WET CANTEENS ISSUE SETTLED i (JTBO2I OTTR OWN COHBEHPONDBNT.) SYDNEY, November 7. The new Minister for the Army (Mr Percy Spender), who was Treasurer in the last Administration, is shaking up his department. , The appointment of a prominent Sydney businessman to be business manager for the Army and a decision to introduce wet canteens in military camps are reforms for which there has long been a public clamour. The new position of business manager inaugurates sweeping changes in Army administration. It alms principally at improvement of the general standard of army equipment and prevention of waste. The position has been accepted by Mr A. C. Lewis, who is managing director and chairman of Concrete Constructions Proprietary, Ltd., and associated companies throughout Australia and South Africa. Mr Lewis will be a - member of the Military Board, and will have farreaching control over all the board’s business activities. He will act in an honorary capacity and devote his full time to the work, , .... Mr Spender said: “The demand that the services should be given a free hand without restraint is not unnatural. ’ Bui if all checks and controls were removed, history would repeat itself and unsatisfactory administration of the Army would result. Mr Lewis’s appointment will result in the attaining of a much higher standard of administration in the department. “The business manager will be. coopted as a member of The Business Board when matters relating to the Department of the Army are under consideration. By his knowledge of business principles, he will be able to present the Military Board’s point of view with much better understanding than the average service officer who is called before the Business Board for the examination of proposals. Mr Lewis’s appointment marks a departure along the lines of introducing outside executive ability into the services. I have, little doubt that the other members of the Military Board will welcome his advent.” In the few days that he has been Minister for tjre Army, Mr Spender has treated the wet canteens question as a major issue. His attitude is in contrast to that of his two predecessors in the portfolio since the war began. In spite of a public outcry for the canteens, which many high church dignitaries have supported, the Cabinet] has been .overawed by a nun--vtaa iwfdiided the Prime

dtr is apparently insisting that a Cabinet majority must decide the question. Soldiers’ riots in Brisbane recently were attributed to the dry canteens, in conjunction with the effect of the Queensland Government’s enforcement of the legal closing time of 8 p.m. for hotels, instead of an unofficial closing hour of 11 o’clock. Mr Spender said he "would not be surprised’’ if the riots had been gon-