ARMY OFFICERS CHARGED

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27201, 19 November 1953, Page 9

ARMY OFFICERS CHARGED

COURT-MARTIAL AT FORT DORSET

ALLEGED IRREGULARITIES WITH STORES

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 18. Three officers of the Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps are appearing before a general court-martial at Fort Dorset on charges alleging irregularities with Army stores. They are Captain S. R. Lewis, commander of the Central District Company of the corps, Major W. L. Dillon, and Major C. E. Graham. The three appeared before the court at its opening today, and the trial of Captain Lewis is now proceeding. The charges against him are of neglect to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he failed to stop the wrongful practice of altering load lists in his company’s accounts section, and conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that during May this year he gave £1 to Lance-Corporal A. J. Ford after Ford had been fined £1 for overissuing meat. He pleaded not guilty to both charges. The charges against all three officers are a sequel to the courts-martial of a captain and two sergeants of the corps.

Warrant Officer R. W. Jenkins, non commissioned officer in charge of supplies at headquarters, said he knew loading lists were altered sometimes. This was a ground for an audit query, but was often allowed to go unchecked. ♦

Presented with a file of loading lists, Mr F. A. Cheyne, a grocer, of Waipukurau, and formerly a supply clerk at Waiouru. said that he had made them out, but that some figures had been altered or added. In one case there was a discrepancy between a list and its original carbon copy of 10001 b of meat.

Lance-Corporal Ford, formerly a rations clerk at Trentham. said that in April of this year he had been fined £1 by Captain-Lewis for neglect to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he overissued a quantity of meat. Later £1 was returned to him in an addressed envelope, and Captain Lewis had rung him and asked whether he had received it. At the time when he was fined he had been only two months on the job, and knew nothing about the matter until he was charged. The court will continue sitting tomorrow.