NEW ZEALAND TROOPS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 22, 27 January 1915, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS

TO THC EDITOR. Sir, — I notice in Saturday's is6ue that the Hon. the Minister for Defence is credited with stating that those who have been occupying civil positions in Samoa are to be given the opporunity of taking up those positions permanently and given the status of Civil servants. A short tifne ago Mr. Massey stated that Samoa was not under the control of the New Zealand Government. This being so, are these men appointed by the Imperial authorities and their salaries paid by the Home Government? If appointed by the New Zealand- Government, have these men qualified for the Civil Service by passing the necessary Civil Service examinations* If not, why have they been appointed, or given the opportunity of appointment? I contend that, in view of the fact that others, before entering the Service, must qualify, so should these men. While -writing this letter I wish to express my disgust — and the disgust of j ©very . respectable citizen — at the alarming number of drunken troopers one sees about the town. Are theee fit men to represent New Zealand at the front, and uphold the honour of the British. Empire ? I think it is a mistake to fill the troopers with false and empty glory, and give them swelled heads. This leads ' to conviviality, and ends in drunkenness and the insulting of respectable women. I have seen cases my self where two or three half drunken troopers accosted and insulted respectable 1 ■ girls in the main streets of this city. : This kind of thing should be stopped instanter by curtailing all leave to the men in camp. They are being paid for 1 doing the work of troopers, and not for ! getting drunk and disgracing their uniforms and becoming a menace to respectable society. I do not refer particularly to the men 1 at present in camp, but to the troopers ! generally. It was the same with the Sainoan troops, the Main Expeditionary ', Force, and now the Reinforcements. What are the Government and the military authorities doing to checkmate this l r state of things? It would have been wiser had the camp been further away from a large city, and when the men came to town, prior to departure make the leave as short as possible. I am as [ anxious as anyone to stimtdate recruit- \ ing, but not of the stamp >1 have seen r about the streets, who have a demoralising effect upon the girls and young H women here, and a source of profit to r tho publicans. — I am, etc., J L. ASTON. Wellington, 26th January. [The subject matter of the first part ', of our correspondent's complaint was iw* • Je*red to tlie Primg Minister, sfe* »jd

in. reply : — "The men who at present hold these positions are already members of the Public Service. Among the Expeditionary Force were a number of Public servants, and the men now holding these positions were selected from them."— Ed.]