DELAY IN HEARING APPEALS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23739, 10 September 1942, Page 4

DELAY IN HEARING APPEALS

MILITARY SERVICE BOARD INVESTIGATIONS BY MINISTER “If appeals against service in Canterbury are not being dealt with expeditiously, I will make a point of visiting Christchurch to investigate the difficulties,” said the Minister of National Service (the Hon. W. J. Broadfoot) to “The Press” last night. The Minister’s attention was drawn to a statement by Mr E. D. Thompson, secretary of the Christchurch Manpower Committee, that the committee was now working through appeals of men called in the sixteenth ballot, that appeals by men in the fifteenth ballot had not been completed, and that the seventeenth ballot would be published next week. “With two boards sitting it should not take long to handle all the appeals,” commented Mr Broadfoot, who mentioned that in the North Island, appeal boards were hearing 40 cases each a day. Far from considering any increase in the number of appeal boards, a reduction in their number was contemplated, said Mr Broadfoot. He added that he had recently returned to Wellington from a visit to Whangarei, Auckland, and Hamilton, where he had studied means of improving the internal administration of the National Service Department and he believed thal the changes which would be introduced would result in appeals being more speedily disposed of. He proposed visiting the South Island as soon as he could leave Wellington.