LEAVE OVERSTAYED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24633, 14 June 1941, Page 13

LEAVE OVERSTAYED

SOLDIERS ALLEGE GRIEVANCE RECENT DRAFT FROM FIJI (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 12. Claiming that they were not granted all the leave promised to them, scores of Expeditionary Force soldiers did not return to the mobilisation camps in the Northern Military District on the official concentration date last week, and many are still being sought'by the army authorities. Every day this week guards from Papakura camp have been escorting men from the city back to camp. The men belong to a draft which was recently returned to New Zealand to continue the, training which they had been undergoing in Fiji. They claim that before they left for New Zealand they were told by their officers that they would be given a fortnight’s leave in New Zealand before being required to report to the mobilisation camps. When they arrived in New Zealand they were granted 10 clear days’ leave and were to report to their camps, on Saturday last. The majority of the men arrived at the camps, but the number of absentees was the largest which has ever been experienced since the first expeditionary force mobilisation! ■i , The foregoing message reached us on Thursday night, but was withheld from publication at the request of the Director of Publicity. OFFICIAL STATEMENT NO EVIDENCE OF PROMISE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 13. Referring to a x’eport of men of a detachment from Fiji having overstayed their leave, the Minister of Defence, Mr F. Jones, stated to-night that there was no. direct evidence of any authorised promise of .extended leave having been given to members of the detachment prior to leaving Fiji, and it was significant that none of the men charged with being absent without leave had pleaded that such a promise had been given. The troops who went to Fiji had the normal leave prior to their departure from the Dominion and they have received a further 10 days since their return.