ARMY METHODS CRITICISED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28795, 16 January 1959, Page 10

ARMY METHODS CRITICISED

Trainee’s Letters Unanswered

"This a shocking state of affairs. There is a laxity somewhere in the Arlmy,” said Mr S. Gladstone, employees’ representative, at a meeting of the Greymouth Military Postponement Committee in Greymouth this morning. The committee was dealing with the application of a man working on his father’s farm. A married couple also working there were due to take their holidays in November, but were now taking them next month. The employers’ representative (Mr W. E. J. Steer) remarked that the appellant was aware of his obligations and had duly written to the Army authorities three times. The father had made arrangements to give a married couple leave while his son was on the farm, and now he had been called up. It was unfair, added Mr Steer. The cpmmittee allowed the appeal sine die. The appellant (R. H. Coates), who had written to the Southern Military District in Christchurch on three occasions without any acknowledgement, is a student at the Otago Medical School. He applied on the grounds of persona] and financial hardship to his father, on whose farm he was working until he resumed his university studies in March. On behalf of the appellant, Mr C. R. McGinley said that he had attended his original Army camp for three months jn 1955 with the Canterbury Regiment, his second camp for 14 days in 1957, and last year found he had been admitted to the Otago Medical School. Automatic Transfer At this stage he had been expecting to attend an officer’s course at Waiouru, but there was not much point in doing so. He would be transferred automatically* to the Medical School unit, to which medical students belonged. He wrote asking for a transfer, but received no answer of any kind. Coates was then advised to attend an N.C.O. parade with the Canterbury Regiment, but, as he was studying in Dunedin, he applied for another transfer. again received no answer.

In October of last year, he reapplied for a transfer, also requesting details of his obligations this year. There was no answer. On December 31 of last year he received a notice to attend camp on February 10. The case was by the committee this morning by request of the Otago Military Postponement Committee.