RETURNING SOLDIERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9954, 25 April 1918, Page 8

RETURNING SOLDIERS

NEW REGULATIONS ISSUED.

The following official statements were issued with the authority of the Defence Minister yesterday regarding the arrangements roc, the reception of returning transports i—- ,. "For some considerable time the Defence Department has had the greatest difficulty In keeping next-of-kin notified of the -times of arrival of ships carrying invalided returned soldiers, and the insufficient information received frequently causes unavoidable inconvenience to the public. Owing to the danger of possible enemy raiders in these sea 3, the British Admiralty has now issued definite instructions that on no account must any ship use its wireless for the purpose of intimattos its probable date of arrival even when within twenty-four hours ol the port of disembarkation. This will mean that no notification of the time of arrival of a troopship will be received except the estimated date which will be cabled from tho last port of call. Such notification would maie it impossible to give any reliable information to the public, and consequently the Government has reluctantly had to Issue instructions that the "present concessions of issuing free railway passes to next-of-kin will be discontinued from this date. "The Defence Department will, upon receipt of cabled advice of a soldier's return, notify tho next-of-kin. but no liefinite date can be stated. Upon the arrival of the ship at the first port of call a telegram will be immediately dispatched to the next-of-kin. notifying ' the approximate time that a soldier should arrive at his home, or if in-patient treatment is necessary, at some specified hospital. The time of disembarkation will also be handed to the Press Association for general information."