THE WAR FUNDS

Southland Times, Issue 18620, 19 August 1919, Page 6

THE WAR FUNDS

Y.M.C.A. ACCOUNTS. RETURNED SOLDIERS’ ASSOCIATIONS’ POSITION. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 18. The Dominion Executive of the New Zealand R.S.A. issued the following statement to-night;— Our reply to the National Executive of the Y.M.C.A. has been delayed pending the publication of their accounts and the auditors’ report. The accounts, together with the report of the London auditors duly appeared in to-day’s Wellington papers, but there is on one of the New Zealand accounts a qualified certificate, which refers to a separate report, and we must of necessity wait for the publication of that particular report before further dealing with the matter. We invite the National Executive of the Y.M.C.A. to publish the missing documents without delay. In continuing our pressure for a commission we wish to emphasise again the two broad issues which we have already made clear in our public statement of last week and previously to the Minister of Internal Affairs, viz:—(1) That we require a Royal Commission for the purpose of framing recommendations for the ultimate disposal of war funds generally; and (2) that we require it further in order that a proper investigation of certain matters, to which we have drawn the Minister’s attention without satisfactory results, may be made. The Y.M.C.A. has represented itself as a body singled out for an attack camouflaged iftder the broad purposes of the commission. To this we give a most unqualified denial. In pressing for the first object we had hoped that the commission suggested would be able to dispose of what we regarded as a minor matter in connection with the second. Y.M.C.A. REPLY. WELLINGTON, August 18. Replying to the Returned Soldiers’ Association’s statement the National Committee' of the Y.M.C.A. states: —The report of Messrs Watkins, Hull, Hunt and Wheeler, auditors of the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. War Fund, w-as sent by the auditors to the Controller and Auditor-General, and it is now in his hands. The committee is seeking the Auditor-General’s permission to publish report and will do so if his permission be obtained.