SOLDIERS’ PROTESTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 153, 31 May 1941, Page 7

SOLDIERS’ PROTESTS

PAYMENT FOR R FPL A C EAIENTS. ! (Press Assn.) AUCKLAND, May 30. Support for complaints made by members of the New Zealand Forces in Fiji that they bad been charged with the cost of clothing was given by a party of nine men who produced their | paybooks showing red ink debit en-i tries and gave their version of the pro-j eedtire. They said that towards the) end of January or the beginning of February they had been told to check I over their kit and parade at theord-j nance store to draw replacements. | Some men needed new shirts, somo required new boots and others socks. When they were handed the equivalent articles they proffered their worn-out goods to the ordnance staff who told) them they were, not, wanted and to get i rid of them any way they could. “Wo hoard no more about the mat-; ter until three months later when we I were on the eve of embarking for j Now Zealand to go overseas again to' join the New Zealand division in the: Middle- East, we hope,” their spokes-1 tnan said. “Then we were told that) wo would have to pay for the articles! which had been given us to replace; our worn-out stuff. Wo protested, but | it was no use because we were told I that if we did not sign the kit deficiency form and hand in our payhooks to have the items debited against us ve would not he allowed to embark

“Our officers could not do anything in the matter and there it rests in the meantime. The cost to each individual is not much, hut we fell we should support the protest which has boon made if onlv for the sake of the men still there and who may ho similarly treated. Quite definitely. although our paybooks show the entries as being for kit deficiencies and wo have signed the kit deficiency form, these articles were not short in our kit. We admit that- if a man loses some portion of his equipment or clothing by eaTelossness lie should pay for it, but there was nothing of the sort in this case. Our shirts, socks and underclothes were definitely worn out as it will he understood they soon would he since in a climate like that of Fiji they must he washed almost every day. Wo always understood that the army would repine" anything that had had fair wear and tear, but that has not happened to us.”

The soldiers could not say whether they had been charged the cost as fo! new articles or on a scale which gives each article a diminishing value according to the period of use in its accepted life. *