CANTEEN SYSTEM

Grey River Argus, 18 March 1941, Page 10

CANTEEN SYSTEM

N.A.A.F.I. to Continue REPORT ON INQUIRY. WELLINGTON, March 11. Rt. Hon. P. Fraser stated to-night that the Government had accepted the conclusions and adopted recommendations of the Board of Inquiry on canteen systems, received by the Prime Minister from Major-General B. C. Freyberg. The conclusions of the Board, which consisted of Brigadier N. S. Falla (President), Colonel W. G. Stevens and Captain H Turner, are as follows:— (1) Th e bulk of the complaints against N.A.A.F.I. would have been common to any service. The majority are quit e unjustified. (2) Those complaints that _ ar.* justified appear .to be remediable with the possible exception of the price of tobacco and cigarettes, and even here a partial solution has been found. ;

(3) Th e 2nd N.Z.E.F. could provide the business organisation in the Middle East to run a, satisfactory service at least, as good as either N.A.A.F.I. or Australia. (4) It is very doubtful if supplies of New Zealand goods of sufficient range could' be provided with adequate regularity, (5) A New Zealand service could never be as flexible or as übiquitous as N.A.A.F.I. There is a definite advantage in sharing in a big organisation, where large territories ar? to be covered. (6) Taking into account all the above factors, the only real gain in

a New Zealand canteen service would be the moral satisfaction that it. was a New Zealand organisation. There is nothing to show that a New Zealand service would otherwise be better than N.A.A.F.I. The Board recommends: (.1) That N.A.A.F.I. b e approached with a request to increase their stocks of New Zealand goods, to allow for the introduction of some -<New Zealand personnel in canteens in New Zealand Camps, and to confirm the fact that New Zealand will share# in the net profits at the end of the war. i (2) That provided th e answers to the above are satisfactory, N.AA.F.T be retained as the N.Z.E.F Canteen Service.