“ HOW LONG, O LORD, HOW LONG?”

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9095, 14 July 1915, Page 10

“ HOW LONG, O LORD, HOW LONG?”

To the Editor "N-Z. Times." Sir, —Surely the time has come when the public indignation regarding the bungling mismanagement at Trentham* should find expression. The time for criticism has passed and for action has oome. There is a universal demand throughout New Zealand that the Hon. J. Allen should be displaced and a more competent man put at the head of the Defence- Office. The insensate egotism of the present Minister has led him to hang on to three portfolios—Defence. Finance, and Education —until compulsorily relieved by a caucus of the two latter, although since the war started the Defence portfolio . was sufficient to engage the whole attention of a much abler man. The result has been that he has exercised practically no control in Defence matters; things have been left to subordinates which should have had the Minister's personal attention, and the outcome is the Trentham disaster Still the Minister clings to the one portfolio he has shown himself most unfitted for. It is now the duty of the people to speak and demand his retirement! Take the proceedings of the past week. Was there ever greater evidence of incompetency, pusillanimity~or, what is even worse, ignorance of the position—than Mr Allen showed regarding (1) the medical service, (2) the lack of information bo relatives, (3) the sanitary conditions, (4) the need for change of site? Up to the last moment he denied in Parliament and in interviews that the condition was serious, that the medical service was inefficient, that the site was insanitary, that there was lack of efficiency in communications with relatives, that there was danger in maintaining the camp at Trentham. At the very time when he was giving forth these denials the military officers were preparing to remove the troops. Is this incapacity to continue? Are the lives of our bravo soldiers to be any longer sacrificed? Will the people of Wellington lie down quietly and submit to a continuance of these things? Shame on us, if we do. Nothing could be worse than the present condition of things- A change of Goveminent is necessary at once. If for party reasons that cannot be secured, let there be a change in the Defence Minister. The Hon. James Allen must’ go. He has been tried in the scales of experience and found wanting. j I hope that a meeting will bo held immediately to give the public a chance to express their feelings on this matter. —X am, etc,, K.o.VV.