RELEASE OF MEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 30 August 1945, Page 5

RELEASE OF MEN

AIR FORCE CRITICISED PERSONNEL URGENTLY REQUIRED IN INDUSTRY (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) Wellington, This Day. The Minister of Defence (Mr Jones) would have to “take the gloves off” to the Air Force if men were to be released as expeditiously as the Government required, declared Mr W. A. Bodkin (National, Central Otago) in the House of Representatives, speaking to the Imprest Supply Bill. Mr Bodkin asked when youths who went into camp at the age of 18 and had been in camp ever since were to be released. Mr T. H. McCombs (Government, Lyttelton): They are going to be released after men with families, I hope. Mr Bodkin: Why shouldn’t they all be released?' We may well ask the Government when the camps are going to be broken up and how long this gigantic expenditure is to continue. The Army is acting reasonably. but with the Air Force there is an entirely different state of affairs. Mr Bodkin then quoted a case in which he *had interested himself and asked if the reply of the Minister to a letter were reasonable. A returned soldier of the last war permitted his son to enter camp at 18 and that lad had been over four years in the service. His father, a farmer, broke down in health as a result of war injuries, and made application to the Armed Forces Appeal Board for the release of the lad. The board rejected the appeal and he (Mr Bodkin) had no fault to find with that, but in the interval hostilities ceased and a different set of conditions applied. He himself then made an application for the release of the lad on the cessation of hostilities, and received the following reply from the Minister: “I have ascertained from the Air Department that an appeal lodged with th e Armed Forces Appeal Board in Dunedin was declined on July 31. However, in view of the cessation of hostilities and the general demobilisation which will now follow the youth will be considered for release in his turn. I regret that at present I am unable to give any indication of the likely date on which this will be effected.” Mr Bodkin said he would ask if that were not a reasonable request on his part. An effort should be made by the defence authorities to release as quickly as possible every man possible so that New Zealand could get on with the production of those commodities Britain needed so sorely. If he had made such a request to the Army a great deal would have been done to release the youth. The reply would have been very different. Mr Bodkin then expressed his view that th e Minister would have to take off the gloves to the Air Force. The whole situation should be firmly .handled, he added. He refused to believe that the officers responsible for •the demobilisation of the Air Force could not expedite an application such as that he had mentioned, an application for a farm worker urgently needed. “If the Deoartment is concerned in proceeding leisurely and reducing as slowly as possible we will get nowhere,” he continued. “I do take exception to the attitude adopted by the Air Force authorities regarding the release of men and suggest to the Minister that it is high time the whole question was thrashed out by the House and for the House to lay down the policy to be adopted.” PROMPT DECISIONS WANTED Mr W. A. Sheat (National, Patea) said he had made representations for th e release of a mechanic for a firm of carriers running a large fleet of trucks in Patea. Three weeks agQ he had been advised that the case would be looked into and he would be in.formed of the result as soon as possible. He had had no further reply. The case was an urgent one, as the firm was gettiivg into a serious position through its inability to obtain the services of a mechanic. He sug- * gested that such a delay was unfair and that consideration of such, applications should be speeded up. Even if a release could not be granted, to be advised of that would at least let the aDnlicant know where he stood. In a rural district particularly, transport was most important, for if it were limited or handicapped production would suffer. Now the war was over he believed that where representations were made for the release of a man who was urgently required for production or for ancillary services it was reasonable to expect a prompt decision. In the case he had mentioned he was satisfied that it should have been possible to give a decision in three or four days. Delays of three or four weeks were not good enough. The Minister of Finance (Mr Nash) replying to the debate, said that all men ought to be let out who could be usefully let out, provided it did not disorganise the service. Mr F. Langstone (Government, Waimarino): I thought the war was over. The Minister replied that all the forces could not be dismissed immediately. There were £70.000.000 worth of goods in the country and if all the forces wqre -dismissed those goods would be worth only £20,000.000 in six months’ time if they were still there.