RETURNED ARMY NURSES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23743, 15 September 1942, Page 6

RETURNED ARMY NURSES

Sir, —The Minister of Defence is either not being candid or does not know all the fac*s about the treatment of the returned Army nurses. His reply to your correspondent makes it appear that none was compulsorily placed on leave without pay. That may be the position now, but it certainly was not when your former correspondent’s letter was written on August 4. At that time some of the nurses were definitely on leave without pay, and against their wishes. _ They had been informed by the Chief Matron, Army Nursing Service, in a telegram, and later in a letter, that they had been placed on leave without pay and that they were advised to return to employment with their hospital boards. There were protests, noV from your correspondent alone, and on August 10 at least one of these “leave without pay" nurses received advice that “the position was being reconsidered.” She was instructed not to return to her hospital board, and told that further advice would be received in a few days.—Yours, etc., PHENOL. August 20, 1942. Sir, —As I write I have before me certain information taken from a circular letter addressed to those Army nursing sisters who were recently returned from active service in. the islands. The letter, which was commenced, “Dear Sister ” and signed by a responsible officer of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service in Wellington, said, in effect, that the sister would be placed on leave without pay. and asked her to get in touch with her hospital board or the Health Department relative to taking up civil employment. If the Minister of Defence, the Hoh. F. Jones, persists in his denial, which appeared in “The Press” of to-day’s date, how, then, does he account for the existence of this circular letter? —Yours, etc., TRUTH AND JUSTICE. August 20, 1942. [ln comment on the subject of these letters the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) says: “The majority of the nurses who have returned to New Zealand fron service overseas are still on leave on pay pending a decision as to their disposal. They have been informed that if they are not needed for the present for further military work, and if they do not belong to any particular Hospital Board, private hospital, or other organisation, their services will gladly be utilised by the Department of Health or one of the hospital boards until such time as they may be again required for military service. Should they return temporarily to a position in a hospital to help in an emergency, they will not draw hospital pay, as they are being paid by the Army Department. In a few cases leave without pay from the Army has been granted, as the sisters are in the employ of hospital boards.]