DEFENCE DEPARTMENT MUDDLING

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 56, 8 March 1919, Page 5

DEFENCE DEPARTMENT MUDDLING

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 28th February. The administration of the Defence Department of Australia has never been characterised by efficiency. It has been the source of ' bitter complaints by soldiers and civilians alike since the first days of the war. It has been in a state of constant muddle, so much so that it is calculated that dishonest clerks, since 1914, have robbed it of fully £200,000. And these represent only the peculations that are known.

It might have been hoped that some | sort of order and method would have been evolved by now, particularly in view of tho return of the soldiers. But there ,is more than a suspicion that the termination of hostilities caught the Australian authorities completely unprepared. Thero is no doubt that, while the British and Canadian authorities . came.' forward with their demobilisation scheme all ready on the day of Germany's surrender, the Australians did not know where they were, and the Australian Ministers responsible have been rushing about frantically ever since. Tho Minister of Defence has hurried off to England, where it is said our soldiers are being held back until a demobilisation scheme can be got ready. There have been serious threats made by the soldiers at the various pay offices. They are coming backjn large numbers, eager for their discharges and demanding their pay, and they can get neither.without grave inconvenience and'delay. Yet these men are mostly invalids. What will happen when the main body men begin to arrive is not a thing pleasant to speculate upon.

Crowds of soldiers, after waiting hours before the congested pay office in Sydney, have become somewhat violent, and threatened to pull the place down. Yet, although New South Welshmen are characteristically difficult to handle, they have done nothing. There is a different tale from Hobart, however. Two soldiers, one a Victoria Cross winner, went for their pay, and, after much delay, were turned away, and tolcl that their papers were mislaid. The Victoria Cross man promptly started in to clean up the office. He attacked the clerks, and upset two tables. The-staff stampeded. A captain, in charge, came in, and the soldier started after him, upsetting some more tables on his way, but his brother caught him and held him. Ho was prosecuted in the Police Court, and it was stated that his action was a protest on behalf of all returned soldiers against tho muddle and delay of the pay office. He was let off with a light penalty.