DISCHARGE OF OFFICERS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23943, 10 May 1943, Page 4

DISCHARGE OF OFFICERS

PROTEST FROM OAMARU R.S.A.

IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION URGED (0.R.) OAMARU, May 9. Protesting against recent Army discharge orders, affecting, it is claimed, many experienced officers holding administrative appointments, the majority of whom are returned men from the last war, the Oamaru branch of the Returned Services’ Association, at its annual meeting last evening, passed a remit requesting the Dominion conference of the association to take up the question with the War Cabinet. The meeting asked that the Cabinet should be requested to retain, where possible, the services of returned men of the Ist or 2nd New’ Zealand Expeditionary Force, and that in any demobilisation of temporary staff, men with civil occupations to return to should be discharged in preference to others. The subject was introduced by Mr G. P. Cuttriss, who said that the earthquake that evening was nothing compared with the jolt received two or three days ago by many officers and non-commissioned officers of the armed forces in New Zealand. Some of these men had received their “marching orders” in the most insulting manner possible, and there should be an immediate investigation, said Mr Cnttriss. The discharge notification, in the case of Oamaru, he continued, came in the form of an open letter to the area office, and the officers concerned had the additional humiliation of being instructed to report to the Manpower Officer, who, they were told, would endeavour to find them suitable employment. The Oamaru officers concerned were men who w’ere serving their country by choice and not by compulsion, said Mr Cuttriss, and one of them gave up his business at the outbreak of war, when his services were requested, while another, although beyond the age for overseas service, was still grade I and an officer of many years’ experience. "The best the country can offer these men is a job on the wharves, at the woollen mills or freezing works, or in the field.” added Mr Cuttriss, who then asked: "Can you imagine any business firm notifying its manager of his discharge in a letter addressed to the whole office, read by all and sundry from the office-boy upwards? That is just what happened in this case," he continued. “But we are not concerned so much with this disgraceful lack of ordinary courtesy and consideration as with the principle involved therein, which thus strikes an early blow at our much-vaunted rehabilitation plans.” Mr H, J. S. Grater said that while he was in accord with all that Mr Cuttriss had said, the’latter had rather narrowed the issue, which concerned the whole question of rehabilitation. If men on their discharge from the Army were expected to go to the Manpower Officer in thpir respective districts, then the word rehabilitation was a misnomer. The present move was nothing less than a purge of officers, and there was not a great deal of difference between it and the purge of Russian Generals save that in the present case the men affected had served their country faithfully and efficiently. The remit was carried unanimously, and it was also decided to appoint a deputation to wait on Lieutenant-Gen-eral E. Puttick. General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Military Forces, when he came to Oamaru next week.