FURTHER TOURS PLANNED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25244, 24 July 1947, Page 8

FURTHER TOURS PLANNED

SEVERAL MORE COUNTRIES TO BE VISITED From Our Own Reporter

GREYMOUTH, July 23. Except for two short visits, FieldMarshal Viscount Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, will be away from England until the middle of December. He has been telling New Zealand audiences that he believes in moving round the world to .find out the trouble at trouble spots, and to form his own opinions instead of reading dispatches in the War Office. In an interview with “The Press.” Lord Montgomery said that his visit to Mexico in September had been requested by the Mexican Government. He would travel to Mexico by way of the Azores, a three-day trip, and would spend only five days in Mexico, returning to London 11 days after leavi ing. Before his Mexico visit. Lord i Montgomery will visit, as a continua- ; tion of his tour of Australia and New j Zealand. Singapore, Japan, and China. .He announced in an interview that ' after his trip to Mexico, he would visit West Africa, Kenya, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Abyssinia—“and perhaps Iran,” he added. I TRIBUTE TO HOSPITAL STAFFS • Congratulations to the staff of the 1 North Canterbury Hospital Board who took part in parades during the visits by Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery to the board’s institutions on Tuesday were expressed by the board yesterday. The chairman (Mr L B. Evans) said there had been no hitch in the arrangements, and the field-marshal’s tour had been an outstanding success, i

SHIP DESERTERS

EFFORTS TO HASTEN THEIR APPREHENSION

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 23. His attention had been drawn to a recent statement by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., to the effect that the number of deserters from ships in New Zealand was about 1000 a year, said the Minister of Marine (Mr J. O’Brien), in reply to a question by Mr J. R. Marshall (Opposition, Mount Victoria), in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr O’Brien said he had made inquiries and ascertained that the actual number of desertions from overseas ships during the 12 months ended May, 1947. was 430. The Minister said the majority of deserters since the end of the war had remained in New Zealand. Efforts were being made to expedite the apprehension of deserters in order that they might be placed in their shipsbefore sailing time, and it was hoped that this would lessen the number f desertions. Mr Corbett, discussing the Minister’s reply, .said he felt that men who deserted from overseas ships were generally a very undesirable type of immigrant. It was probable that they were in many cases finding employment in the coastal shipping of New Zealand, and this might be the cause of the number of shipping hold-ups which were occurring round the New Zealand coast. He felt many of these troubles might be averted by bringing a better type of man to New Zealand to provide crews for the coastal shipping services.

YESTERDAY IN THE HOUSE

DAIRY MARKETING BILL

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 23. “Why has the Government given up its foster child? Is it because it has become a problem child?” asked Mr R. M. Algie (Opposition, Remuera) when the debate on the Dairy Marketing Commission Bill was continued by the House of Representatives this evening. The previous guaranteed price system had been the legislative offspring of the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash), he said. Mr Algie said the country had seen the Government run away from its own legislation before because “it became too hot to hold.” He cited the setting up of the Railways Tribunal and the Price Tribunal as examples. The Minister of Rehabilitation (Mr C. F. Skinner), replying to what he termed the Opposition’s grudging support of the bill, said the dairy industry in Jew Zealand was the most efficieni in the world. It had taken what was now called the “terrible Socialist Government” to provide an orderly marketing system, he claimed. The debate was still unfinished when the House adjourned at 10.30 p.m. This afternoon the replies of Ministers to members’ questions were circulated and discussed. Leave to introduce the J. R. McKenzie Trust Bill, a private measure to vary the conditions of the J. R. McKenzie Trust, was grantect.