DEFENCE MATTERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10137, 27 November 1918, Page 5

DEFENCE MATTERS

DEMOBILISATION SHALL THERE BE A STANDING ARMY? “When are the services of officers, highly-paid men. to be dispensed with, or are wc to keep a standing army in New Zealand.” asked Mr George Witty, M.P. for Eiccartou. in the House of Representatives yesterday. Many of these officers, he stated, had simpiy been walking the streets in uniform and swinging canes all the tinie. air James Allen stated that the officers in the New Zealand Army were tne lowest-naid officers in the world, and mo Government would possibly have to consider before long an increase of pay. Many of the officers, like Colonel Tait and Major-General Kobui, for example, had been drawn irom their civil occupations, and had made great sacrilices to come and take smaller salaries to do their duty to their country during tile war. So far as the officers were concerned, as soon as the Defence Department could get rid of them it would do so. It was not keeping them on for the sake of doing so. Demobilisation was a very big job, and would require a considerable staff to carry it out. BRINGING BACK TROOPS. £OOO NOW ON THE WATER. Replying to a question by Air A. Harris. M.P. for Waitemata, in the House of Representatives yesterday, the Minister for Defence stated that tn© department had no intention to set up a consumptive sanatorium for returned soldiers at Devonport. What was intended was to place men at Narrow Neck camp on arrival in New Zealand tor observation purposes, and if they were found to bo suffering from phthisis they would then bo transferred to sanatoria elsewhere. He was advised that there was not, tho slightest danger to the inhabitants of the borough arising out of tho proposed tchsniß. ■ As a matter of fact, no did not think that the camp would be needed for that purpose very long. He hoped that the bulk of tho soldiers would have returned within six; or twelve months. Two thousand were on the water now, tour'to five thousand would ho on the water next month, and they would come in great hatches after that. “ALLEN’S FOLLY.” A BOOK OF BLUNDERS? ow that the war is over ” declart?.; hs G. Witty. M.P.. m the Hons© Representatives' yesterday, R is surely Mime 'that" Mho expenditure on ‘Allen’s Folly.’ the building blocking Whitmore street, was stopped It was,” he added, “wilful, woeful waste and ruinous folly.” That was the sort of thing that the Defence Department had been doing all along, he maintained, and the Defence Expenditure Commission’s Report was simply a w washing report. ■ Mr J. Vigor Brown, M.P. t°r Na pies.;;. -They,, ate..going to publish a book shortly—“ Sir ' James. Allen s. Blunders.” , . Mr Witty: Yes, and a certain perB on has been mentioned us editor. Hike the report, it will be a whitewashing affair. . , . Sir James Allen denied that it was a whitewashing report. “Thank God, the department had no dirty linen to Mr R. McCallum, M.P- for W a ira.u: Do .you • say that y. no ; portion of the report was excised? Sir James Allen: There is a question on the Order Paper about that. It will be answered in the ordinary way. Ha added that, as compared with the renting system, the cost of tho building in Whitmore street would be saved in five or six years- The Pay and Records Office would go on for two or three years yet, and afterwards the building would.be of great use to the Public Service generally. LAND FOR SOLDIERS BA DEBLOCKS NOT WANTED. Nothing had been done for the repatriation of the soldiers, except to buy land away in the backhlocks, and mostly in the North Island, stated Air G. Witty, M.P., in Parliament, yesterday. We would have the country crowded with soldiers, and nothing done for them, yet the Government was talking about closing the session in a few daysl They should go on for six months, and do everything they possibly could for the men who had gone away and fought for them. Tho delegates might go to tho Peace Conference, but Parliament should go on without them. Air Massey claimed that a great deal had been done for the soldiers. The hon. member must know that, and should acknowledge it. Air Witty: I would acknowledge it if it was correct. Air Alassey said that such statements had been made by him so often that the hon. member came to believe them himself. A very large quantity of land had been purchased at a cost of over a million. More land had been purchased than there were soldiers to take it up. Air Witty: It was not suitable land. Tho Prime Minister claimed that tho land in question had been purchased at £20,000 below its actual value.. Good land, as to which he gave particulars, had also been purchased in the Canterbury district. A great deal had been done for the returned soldiers, he declared, and tho people ot the country would leave, nothing undone to show their appreciation of what the soldiers had done for them. Mr J. Anstoy, M.P. for Waitaki, also contended that tho land purchased was not suitable for soldier settlement. Light Boots for Summer wear. Up-to-iate shapes. 22s Cd. 25s Cd, 27s Cd vp. Oeo. FowltL. Ltd., Manners street, * A prominent member of the Relief Society in New York favours putting 100,000 non-productive convicts in American prisons to work in munition factories. Every home needs BEE OINTMENT. Nothing bettor, quicker, safer, and surer for outs, sores, abrasions, burns, and every kind of skin, trouble. A Is gj pot lasts a long time.