THE RETURNED SOLDIER RECEPTION MUDDLES.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 924, 28 March 1918, Page 6

THE RETURNED SOLDIER RECEPTION MUDDLES.

Yet Another Enquiry. "\7~ET another official enquiry has -**- been set on foot by the' Government, this time by the Defence Department. It is solemnly announced that an investigation is to be made into alleged muddling of the reception, arrangements at Auckland and Wellington when the last batch of returned soldiers reached the two ports in question. A secondary duty is cast upon the investigators in, the devising of means whereby future muddles 6i the same kind may be prevented. All this savours very much of locking the stable doors when the horse is found to be stolen. The country is to be put to the expense of finding but how and why the muddling came to happen. But that is precious -small consolation to the parents and relatives who had to put up with serious inconvenience and disieomfort, to say nothing of the just irritation caused to,the men themselves. The thing simply shouldn't have happened at all if the Defence Department had done its business properly. .«• * * * Heaven only knows that there are enough highly paid and, so far as the public can judge, by no means overworked Permanent Staff officers swaggering about the place who should be able to make proper arrangements for the orderly and comfortable landing of the men and their reception generally by parents, relatives, and the public. The staff knows the men are arriving, knows when they will arrive, knows how many of them there are, and surely they can consult with the Harbour Board authorities and arrange for everything passing off smoothly and comfortably. If the .Department is unable to hold some officer or officers personally responsible for the state of chaos which prevailed at Auckland and again, in a lesser degree, here in Wei-, lington, then what sort of control has the Department over its staff ? ' "* •» « « The Department has practically unlimited means, at its command. The taxpayers cheerfully pay heavy taxes, the public cheerfully subscribe to. the War Loans: no one can say that the Department is crippled for want of funds. It cannot be through want of funds that the Defence Department, or certain of its officers*, is so constantly '" muddling things. It must then be for want of brains. Compulsory service is popular with the great mass of the public. The community, as a whole, does not desire to cripple or handicap the Defence Department in any way. But what the public does want, and what it has a right to demand, is that the Department should insist upon its officers displaying some reasonable degree of foresight and common-sense in connection with its work, more particularly in connection with such important functions as the receptions of the returned soldiers. The Department should not stand in need of any court or board of enquiry to assist it in finding out who was to blame for the disgraceful muddling on a recent occasion. It should itself be able to identify the blunderers and penalise them accordingly. The public is sick unto death of these courts of enquiry whose proceedings too often end in convenient white-washings.