THE DEFENCE DEPARTMENT'S METHODS.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 921, 8 March 1918, Page 8

THE DEFENCE DEPARTMENT'S METHODS.

A Very Reasonable Complaint. IVTO one wishes to embarrass the Government or to indulge inmerely captious criticism of the Defence Department, but the ways of the' Department are assuredly quite beyond the comprehension of ordinary com-mon-sense people. For instance., we are constantly hearing Second Division men complaining of the way they have been, as one wrathful young businessman put it, "messed about bj* the Defence authorities." "When a man,. either in business on his own account, or occupying some responsible position in private employment, is told to hold himself in readiness to go into camp on February Ist, he naturally assumes that he will have to commence his military "career on that date, and makes Ms business and family arrangements accordingly. It is easy to understand how irritated he is when, after disposing of hisi business, in some cases at a- financial loss, or resigning his! appointment, the authorities blandly announce that his services . will not be? required. until June. There are quite a. number •of cases, we are assured, in Wellington alone, where the postponement has caused serious loss to men who are willing, even anxious, enough to do their duty to country and Empire, but who naturally object to having to ki'ck their heels for four months, with no compensation from the State for their enforced idleness. s © <j © Surely, the Defence Department ought to know exactly when the men will be required. Heally, we begin to despair of common sense methods ever being employed by the Defence officialdom, and we do not wonder that from. the North Cape to the Bluff there should be grave public discontent with the ineptitude and iricapaeity of those who are entrusted with the carrying into- operation of the Military Service Act. We warn Mr. Massey that the serious dissatisfaction now so. widely expressed with the Defence Department's method—or lack of method —is not only bringing the National Government into disrepute, but may, if not checked by wholesale and wholesome 'changes, seriously prejudice the position of the Reform Party once the end of the war dissolves the so-called party truce. It is a thousand pities that Sir James Allen could not take a to Europe instead,.of the Prime Minister and so allow the latter to take charge of the Defence administration.