PETROL FOR SERVICEMEN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24501, 26 February 1945, Page 6

PETROL FOR SERVICEMEN

Sir-Will the Oil Fuel Controller juftify his . refusal r^fl , a , U °The P circim° men returning overseas? Tne circiuu stances, *simila r in two cases o which I have knowledge, are as _ The serviceman, on returning hom i”;L _ nerioa of service in the islands, is allowed a certain of netrol After a period of less than three months in New Zcateiid he is again ordered overseas and final leave, is given an authority by the service to which he belongs, to.be handed to the controller for a further allowance of petrol. However, the controller refuses to allow the serviceman any petrol, on the grounds that he has recently had his ‘return home allowance. If this man had been held in New Zealand for 12 months before returning overseas, he Would get petrol for his final leave. Because he is only hcr6 for two to throe months, he is penalised.—Youra, February 14, 1945. [This letter was referred to the Oil Fuel Controller, Christchurch, who said: “The Dominion Oil Fuel Controller has rifled (January, 1945) that members of the armed forces on furlough who have drawn their full furlough allowance of motor-spint are not entitled to a final leave grant on proceeding overseas: again. If, however, the applicant can produce evidence that he did not draw a .final leave allowance when he originally. went overseas, sympathetic consideration can be given his application, but it must be distinctly understood that the onus is on the applicant to prove that he had no final leave grant.”]