OMISSION FROM AWARD

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 2, 27 September 1944, Page 8

OMISSION FROM AWARD

Malaya And New Guinea Campaigns (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received September 26, 9.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, September 26. Criticism that the Australians who fought in Malaya and New Guinea had been slighted because they are not eligible for the 1939-43 Star has been answered by the Commonwealth’s Army Minister, Mr. Forde. A protest to the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, over the omission of Malaya and New Guinea from the areas of eligibility for the Star was made by LieutenantGeneral Gordon Bennett, who commanded the A.I.F. in Malaya. General Bennett, who was recently posted to the retired list, declared that Malaya’s omission was a “slight to every man who served in Malaya.” ” Royal Australian Naval and RA.A.F. personnel have been wearing the ribbon of the 1939-43 Star for several months, and it will now be issued to members of the Australian military forces w-ho have served in approved areas. Mr. Forde said that negotiations were in progress with the British Government, and due recognition would be given the men who fought so gallantly in Malaya and New Guinea. When an agreement was reached a statement would be issued. Ail the areas iu which. Australian milltary personnel had qualified for the Star had not yet been decided. “Mr. Forde’s reply does not qualify the slight—all it does is increase the reasonable man’s disrespect, for the slow and stupid methods of officialdom, comments the Sydney “Suu” in a leading article today. “That. Burma has been included in the list of battle areas and Malaya ignored, that raids by British and Dominion troops in Sark. A-aagso and Lofoten should be remembered, -and the long, bitter and heroic lighting on the ‘Owen Stanley Range forgotten, is -a monument to official fat-headedness. rsow that the anomaly has been pointed out and sharply aud deservedly criticized, we may expect that it will be corrected, it should never Ipive needed correction, and would not had the. Australian Government remembered its duty to the fighting man/’