COMING HOME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 93, 14 January 1919, Page 6

COMING HOME

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, "If the shipping continues as it is at and if the Imperial Government will let; our men away, , I hope that, wo shall get them back W soon»r than we had anticipated. All depends on t%- shipping nnd oh whether any of the men will-have to'-hf. hold for iti :Gemmny, A for' it :is : admitted that the British must 1 keep a forre there /until neace has bpon concluded. Nothing has Wn said nbout holding our ■men for.this duty.. We have asked that ttiev be to come; -seeing, that tW have so far f<, "ome. Deci«n n rests with' the Imperial Government'." ;

OUR ABROAD NEWS : STATEMENT BY SIR JAMES ALLEN. :tt appears from a statement made by Sir James Allen yesterday that the soldiers ofthe New Zealand Division may he back in this country sooner than they had been expected. : It was feared by the New Zealand authorities that theJVew Zeahmders might be held along with some other troops as part of the army of occupation i( >yhich must be maintained until peaco" has beeii concluded', but it is now'hoped that this will not bo necessary, and the Minister is hopeful that they may come back more quickly than they had been expected. . .-.'■' "I thiiik that the bulk of tho sick and wounded men will bo back hero by the cud of February," said tho Minister of Defence to a reporter yesterday. ' 'There will be some of the wounded unfit to travel except in hospital ships, and they, of course, will have to wait until hospital ships are able to take ;f h'e'rii'. -': It■"is.'nq't l ' expected, however, that it will be necessary for tho hospital ships to.contiuue running for very much .longer. AVolmye not decided yet what' We shall do with the shins after we have finished withthem as hospital shins. If we should decide to use them as'transports should havo to refit them, and as this would be a long and expensive' business we may decide to hand them back to tho Union Company to be fitted out again for their ordinary trades. ",- "As to the order in which the men are to Teturn, we have- not varied* the original arrangement except in some details. The Main Body men will come back .first, and' the rest by order of seniority of reinforcements. We have asked that the return of coal miners should be expedited, as these men are : touch' needed here. We have also asked for the speedy repatriation of youths ', who .have-not • completed their''terms .of apprenticeship in their trades. Remiest is- being made for the return of ■ Public "Works • engineers who are needed for the developmonjf works that will havo to : bo (Undertaken by the Department soon. There is the'specialcase of the men who have/urgent reasons for wishing to return '■ speedily to their tomes: The .applications of these men are all investigated, and if the reasons are all found to bo as stated, and tho conduct of the men in the Force hns been good, the implications, are usually granted. The Pioneer Battalion, consisting mostlv of miners and Maoris, is to come back soon, and also the Rarotoncans. , -