GUNNER AND COLONEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22956, 7 February 1938, Page 6

GUNNER AND COLONEL

NEW AUSTRALIAN JUDGE COUNSEL WHO REFUSED LEAVE [from our own correspondent] MELBOURNE, Jan. 24 The appointment of Mr. H. B. Piper, of Adelaide, as a Judge of the Federal Arbitration Court has created a strange situation in the relationship of two former members of the Australian Imperial Force. Mr. Frank P. Derham, of Messrs. Moule, Hamilton and Derham, a Melbourne legal firm, appears regularly before the Arbitration Court as counsel for employers' organisations. As Colonel Derham in the Great War ho was Gunner Piper's commanding officer. Mr. Derham intends to send a letter of congratulation to Mr. Piper, reminding him that on one occasion he had to refuse him leave, and expressing the hope that this would not be held against him in future. Recalling the incident, Mr. Piper said that it happened in France at the end of the war. He was eager to get away, and made an application to his superior officer for leave, but Colonel Durham informed him that he was unable to grant the request. "I had been in the Army and wanted to get back home and practise my profession," said Mr. Piper. "I had been admitted to the Bar, and had never practised, and I was eager to begin. Within a day or so I was able to obtain leave, which brought me back to my legal work. "Frank Derham is a man T know well, and I think that this is his way getting a good joke on me before my lips are sealed. He can rest assured that I will held nothing against him. When we meet privately I might repay him in my own way."