MR SCRIMGEOUR TO JOIN ARMY

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23974, 15 June 1943, Page 4

MR SCRIMGEOUR TO JOIN ARMY

Refusal of Appeal Discussed VICTIMISATION SUGGESTED From Our Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, June 14. The Controller of Commercial Broadcasting (Mr C. G. Scrimgeour), in a statement to-day, said he was to enter a military camp on June 22. “I shall be happy and proud to become a soldier in the Army,” said Mr Scrimgeour. “I have, however, had a long association with aviation, and some experience as a pilot. For some time I was club captain of the largest aero club in New Zealand. Therefore I have made a formal application which would permit the authorities to. utilise me in the Air Force if they desire. Whatever the case, I desire to take my place, side by side with other ordinary citizens, in the heat and burden of the battle against Fascism.” Position of Other Men Mr Scrimgeour said that there were in the broadcasting service a number of grade 1 men who had been appealed for on the ground that “by reason of his occupation his* calling up for service is contrary to the public interest.” Some of them were accounts clerks and correspondence clerks, and at least one advertising man. Many of them had been called in earlier ballots than himself, and were therefore younger men. and many of them had fewer children. He was married, over 40, with three children. Throughout all State departments a similar state of affairs existed. Mr Scrimgeour said that ordinarily appeals for Stale servants were made by the head of the department in which a man was employed. The case of each man so appealed for went before the Public Service Appeals Advisory Committee, In practice, appeal boards accepted the recommendations of that committee without requiring appeals to be heard in the ordinary way. Under the regulations he could have appealed for himself on the ground of the public interest, but naturally expected that an appeal would be made for him by some other authority without his being placed in the invidious position of appealing for himself. The Public Service Appeals Advisory Committee obviously took the same view, for it considered his case along with those of the other men in his department called in the same ballot. In his case the committee recommended full postponement, but no appeal was lodged on his behalf. Circumstances connected with his homeless sister and her four children compelled him to make an appeal on the grounds of personal hardship, and at the same time he appealed on the grounds of public interest. At the hearing the Minister of Broadcasting claimed that no appeal was made because his attitude, and that of the Government, was that Ministers should ’ not appeal for subordinates. Challenge to Minister Mr Scrimgeour said he would challenge the Minister to prove that there was none in Parliament Buildings directly subordinate to Ministers who had been appealed for. He had counsel’s opinion to the effect that Ministers of the Crown had no more rights in the matter of appeals than ordinary individuals. Further, counsel advised that under one of the national service regulations, the Public Service Commissioner had clear jurisdiction to appeal for Mr Scrimgeour, and that under another of the same regulations the Director of National Service could have appealed. Why, then, was there a deliberate smokescreen about Ministers not appealing for subordinates? Were the Public Service Commissioner and the Director of National Service prevented from functioning? It was curious that, with the exception of himself, every balloted head of a Government department, and every deputy head, had been appealed for. Mr Scrimgeour said that in view of the Minister’s evidence which because he had not taken legal advice, he was not then able to challenge, his public interest appeal was dismissed, but on the hardship grounds the appeal board deferred his calling up until May 15. Appointment of Successor Mr Scrimgeour then described events connected with his suspension, and the discussions he had with a “certain committee representing the Government.” He said that these discussions were followed by a public statement by the Prime Minister expressing pleasure at the revocation of the suspension, and the opinion that he had every reason to anticipate efficient and harmonious working on the part of the Commercial Broadcasting Service. . "Is the public now to infer that the Prime Minister made the mental reservation of limiting his pleasure and happy anticipation until May 15?” asked Mr Scrimgeour. "The public will undoubtedly think so, because towards the end of May I received from the military authorities a notice requiring me to proceed to camp on June 8. I immediately acquainted the Minister of Broadcasting of this, and he advised me of his intention to appoint as acting-controller a certain officer of my own department. This officer is five years younger than myself and has only one child, against my three. He is grade 1. and on the recommendation of the Public Service Appeals Advisory Committee, a departmental appeal for him was allowed before my own was dismissed. The Minister was just on the point of making the appointment when it occurred to him to inquire as to the officer’s liability to military service. Of course, in an endeavour to satisfy public opinion, some other appointee is now being sought.” Mr Scrimgeour went on to say that the position of his widowed sister and her children had not improved, as was hoped at the appeal board sitting, because she had to enter hospital for long treatment and a major operation. As she had no home to go to, it was urgent that he should obtain a temporary postponement of entering camp. Accordingly, accompanied by his solicitor. he called on the assistant-area officer, who agreed to cancel the mobilisation order for June 8. “He said I would get another mobilisation ordev for a later date, and that if I found that time then allowed was insufficient. I should apply to the appeal board.” Mr Scrimgeour said; "but the assistant-area officer was overruled. In a little more than 24 hours, late the following afternoon, there was delivered at my office a communication advising that ‘on confirmation being sought from Army Headquarters for the postponement of your entering into camp until June 22, this was declined.’ To make assurance doubly sure, a similar letter was posted to me at my home. Application for Rehearing "The obvious questions are: who overruled the assistant-area officer? It is certainly not the practice for Army Headquarters to do so. Did the Prime Minister or any Minister of the Crown have a part in the matter?” Mr Scrimgeour said that his solicitors then made formal application for the reopening of the appeal, with a view to placing before the appeal board the facts which Army Headquarters, or someone higher, had brushed aside. An appeal could be reopened only on the application of the Director of National Service, or his delegate, and the regulations provided that such a delegate “shall act in accordance with all the directions, general or special.” given to him by the Director or Minister of National Service. His application for a rehearing was referred to Mr C. O. Bell, a dulyappointed delegate of the Director of National Service. Mr Bell was the Crown representative before the appeal board, and the public would remember the nature of some of the questions which he asked Mr Scrimgeour in opposing his appeal at the original hearing. Towards the end of the day on which his solicitors made the application for the rehearing, two messages were received within

half an hour. The first was from the Army area office, and was to the effect that, conditionally upon his being inoculated and vaccinated the following day, with which condition he complied, his entry into camp was postponed until June 22.. The date mentioned had no regard to the circumstances of his sister. The second message. received by his solicitors from Mr Bell, was that his appeal would not be reopened. “Did Mr Bell take it on himself to prevent my case going to the appeal board?” asked Mr Scrimgeour, “or did he get any Ministerial directions?” Hard though it was upon his bereaved and incapacitated sister and her young children that no postponement had been granted beyond June 22, from his own point of view he was happy and proud to be joining the armed forces of the country in which he was born. This did not lessen his opinion that his services as a single individual could be far more effectively used on the war effort if he were to continue as Controller of Commercial Broadcasting. Radio and the War Effort “Everyone knows the great service that radio, properly conducted, can render our cause in war time; but I have been repeatedly thwarted when I have made suggestions that my own knowledge and experience should be used for that purpose. Instead we have had things like the notorious ‘muck rake’ broadcast, and another under the title of ‘Coward’s Castle.’ Perhaps the explanation is to be found in the Minister's own words to me on one occasion: T do not want you to get too much power’.” His statement showed clearly, he honed, that he had no desire to avoid military service. If there were any who, through political or other prejudices. might seek to doubt that, he would mention that he was an officiating minister of the Society of the Friendly Road, a church with some thousands of members. Had he chosen to raise this matter it would have obtained for him. without any publicity, as in the case of all officiating ministers. exemption from military service. “Am I being sent into the Army for Army purposes or for other reasons?” asked Mr Scrimgeour. “Is my case not discrimination and victimisation at its worst? Might it not even be that my previously-announced intention to become a Parliamentary candidate has a direct bearing on the whole matter? To send me out of New Zealand would remove all fear of this. The official condition imposed, relating to my inoculation and vaccination before entering c-'mp, would certainly indicate that there is no desire that anything should stand in the way of my early departure overseas.”