DEFENCE EXPENDITURE

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 45, 21 February 1918, Page 8

DEFENCE EXPENDITURE

COMMISSION AT PALMEBSTON

NORTH,

(II TKI.EORAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

PALMERSTON N., This Day.

The' sitting of the Defence Expenditure Commission commenced in Palmerston this morning, before Sir Robert Anderson (chairman) and Messrs. Charles Rhodes and P. Barr. • •

The first witnesses were Oolonel J. E. Hume, officer commanding the Wellington, military district, and Colonel T. W. Slacdonald, staff officer. Colonel Hume did not agree that authority to spend small amounts should be delegated to group commanders. He would prefer to have the responsibility on his own shoulders r In many cases the officers to whom' he had to send, requisites were his junior in years and rank. Sometimes he got so sick of it that he did without things. For months he had been trying to get some linoleum and book shelves for his office; and it took him a long time to get some blinds. He had bought, some articles at his own expense rather than argue .about it. In many cases the time and material taken up in correspondence were more valuable than the article asked for.

Colonel M'Donald considered that permament camps should have been established in the four military districts instead of at Trentham and Featherston, so that t*iey could have been used as training camps after the war. He considered if the country had taken advantage of his and other experienced officers' advice many thousands of pounds would have been saved the country since the war broke out. ■■.■'.