BAD BOOTS FOR SOLDIERS

Southland Times, Issue 17658, 16 February 1916, Page 3

BAD BOOTS FOR SOLDIERS

GERMANIC CONTRACT SCANDALS. Germany, as well as Austria, has been afflicted with army contract scandals, especially in connection with the supply of bail boots, writes the Berne correspondent of the London Morning Post. Several German contractors have just been sentenced for defrauding the War OlTi.'c by supplying worthless boots, in one case to over five years’ imprisonment and five years’ degradation of civicrights. An. inquiry into the Austrian Army boot scandals has just been concluded, and thoroughly proves that tho hoots rejected by the VTar Office .afterwards found their way hack again indirectly to the War Office and were accepted. The president of tho court-martial, in delivering judgment, said that “the Government must be protected against the devil who has been turned out at the aoor slipping in again through the window.” The Austrian military hoots were chiefly made or paper-.machc, and when the unfortunate soldiers got them damp they were left virtually barefoot.