STRANDED KIWI

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 60, Issue 4320, 21 August 1950, Page 8

STRANDED KIWI

MAN FROM PAEROA

WANTS TO- RETURN

INFLEXIBLE REGULATIONS

An almost incredible story of a stranded Kiwi, who enlisted fiom Paeroa on September 12, 1939, served for over six years and who wants to return to New Zealand but is pievented by the stupidity of regulations is told in a recent issue of the Auckland Star, the story reading as follows :—

“On previous occasions this page has brought to the notice of its readers the utterly inflexible way in which certain regulations are frequently interpreted and the resultant hardship to men who served well and unstintingly during the war. There was the case of Mr A. R. Denton, of Remuera, which has again been turned down by the Rehabilitation Board on a technicality.

“Now, Mr C. G. Beer, former member of the Auckland R.S.A. executive, brings back from England details of the case of a New Zealand ex-service-man who is stranded in England, seeks an assisted passage back to *this country, yet cannot even receive the same privileges as other assisted immigrants whether they be British or foreign.

“No. 2605, Sergeant Leonard W. F. Phillips, formerly of the 18th Battalion and later Armoured Regiment, took his discharge in England in May, 1946, after a total service of 6 years 229 days. He set himself up in business but through force of circumstances found himself “high and dry” in 1948. Since then his capital has dwindled and! he has been most anxious to get back to New Zealand. “He writes: “I therefore answered an advertisement in May, 1950, in which the New Zealand Government wanted 2000 single men under 46 years of age for free passage to New Zealand at once. I offered to go under any category from quarry hand to hotel bottlewasher and serve a period of two years under the terms of the scheme. My application was refused point-blank.

“I offered to pay for an assisted passage and was again refused. “The fact remains, however, that to get an assisted passage to New Zealand one must have been domiciled in England for 10 years from September, 1038.” .

“Mr Phillips says he was told that his service with the 2nd N.Z.E.F. did not count for anything. “Mr Phillips was bom in England and emigrated to New Zealand with one of the original English public school parties in 1925. He enlisted in the Army at Paeroa on September 12, 1939, and served with the l'Bth Battalion in the Middle East and Italy. At the end of the Italian campaign, Sergeant Phillips transferred to the N.Z.Y.M.C.A., secured a priority passage to England and helped in the repatriation arrangements of New Zealand ex-P'.O.W.’s under Sir Howard Kippenberger. “During his final leave just before returning to New Zealand he was offered a business proposition and decided to stay in the United Kingdom, taking his discharge there. “The case was reported by Mr Beer to the quarterly meeting of the Auckland R.S.A., which passed the following resolution to be forwarded with details to N.Z.R.S.A. headquarters:—

“That whereas under the scheme of assisted immigration to New Zealand, both free and assisted passages are readily available to ex-servicemen who have served in the U.K. forces and have been discharged, but any other .potential immigrants must have resided in the U.K. for the previous 10 years, the Government be pressed to waive the residential qualification in cases of New Zealand ex-servicemen who have been discharger in the U.K.” “It may be argued by some—“He asked for his discharge in England—he got it there. He’s got no claim on the country to come back now, four years later.” “We don’t know the circumstances that lead to the collapse of Mr Phillips’ business. In any case they are immaterial. Had he decided to come home in 1946 the Government would have had to bring him home. He is not asking for anything he would not have got in th 6 normal course of events.

“Quite apart from all that the mere fact that he has very strong connexions .with this country should entitle him to an assisted immigrant’s passage, particularly in view of the fact that he is prepared to' fill his part of the contract when he gets here.

“Mr Phillips is not the only New Zealander in Britain wanting to get

back here but unable to do so • under their own steam.” “Surely, a little bit of official imagination is called for. Strict adherence to regulations didn’t win us the war.”