RAILWAY ENGINEERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15687, 14 August 1914, Page 7

RAILWAY ENGINEERS.

SECTION FOR THE FRONT.

SOME DISAPPOINTED MEN.

REFERENCE IN PARLIAMENT.

[Br TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ] Wellington-, Thursday. A mtiibkr of young men in the railway service have been disappointed in not being included in the advance guard of the expeditionary force. The matter was referred to in the House of Representatives this evening by Mr. G. W. Russell (Avon), who said that he undorstool that 18 young men who had come from different parts of the Dominion with a view of serving in the railway section of the contingent, had been ordered to stand aside on tho ground that their services were not required. Ho was referring more particularly to the Auckland district, and ho asked whether it would not bo possible to permit them to go a.way with the advance guard. If not, would i/ho Government indicate what the position of these men would bo in tho event of their going with the main body of the force? He understood that the young mon in question had been informed that if they joined another contingent not only would they not receive the half pay allowed to the railway men who were going with the first contingent, but that their positions would not be kept open for them when they returned.

I Tho Minister for Defence, Hon. James Allen, said that the Defence Department had considered it necessary to send a specially-selected force of 250 Railway Engineers with the first force. These 250 men had been selected by Col. Hiley and the Railway Department had made some special arrangements in regard to their pay. As to the question raised by Mr. Russell, Mr. Allon said that he had been informed that when the railway men who had been selected in Auckland to go into the contingent went to tho train, 18 young men who had Dot been selected, but who were determined to go, got on tho train and came to Wellington. He did not know whether this was correct or not.

Mr. Wilford i Those are tho sort of men you want to take.

Mr. Allen: I would like to see them go, but the only thing they can do is to volunteer to go in a later contingent. Tho Hon. W. H. Herrios said that as Minister for Railways he had nothing to do with Defence matters, but if tho House desired it, he was quite prepared to go to the front with tho railway section. (Hear, hear.) The Railway Engineers, which was a very fine body of men, was entirely a Defence force, in charge of Colonel Hiley, as Colonel Hiley, and not as general manager of railways. He did not know the position in regard to the men mentioned by Mr. Russell, but he would make inquiries into the matter. Any member of tne railway service who went to tho front woulu secure his position again when h© returned if he were physically fit. If not, he would get a pension. The men must, of course, have tho consent of the Department 'before volunteering. This consent, however, woulu not bo arbitrarily withheld.