POSTS RESIGNED BY COLONELS

Southland Times, Issue 23543, 24 June 1938, Page 6

POSTS RESIGNED BY COLONELS

Two Signatories Of Recent Manifesto

AIDES-DE-CAMP TO LORD GALWAY

COURT-MARTIAL EXPECTED BY ANOTHER OFFICER

(Special to The Times) AUCKLAND, June 23.

An ■ announcement in the Gazette issued in Wellington tonight states that Colonel A. S. Wilder, D. 5.0., M.C. and Colonel N. L. Macky, M.C., have relinquished their appointments as honorary aides-de-camp to the GovernorGeneral (Viscount Galway). The two officers mentioned, with two other colonels in the Territorial Force, recently published throughout New Zealand a manifesto drawing attention to what they claimed were serious shortcomings in the Territorial Force of the Dominion. The publication of the manifesto followed the report of a speech at Dargaville by the Minister of Defence (the Hon F. Jones) reviewing the defence forces of the Dominion. When the Gazette announcement was referred to Colonel Macky tonight he said he did not wish to make any comments. Another senior officer, however, expressed the view that the notification in the Gazette was probably the result of the officers concerned having asked the proper authorities to be relieved of their appointments as aides-de-camp to the Governor-General “This is the proper action to be taken by an officer holding such an appointment when he is aware that disciplinary action is about to be taken against him,” he continued. “A reasonable inference would appear to be that some disciplinary action is contemplated against the officers concerned and it is supposed that a court-martial will be constituted to try an alleged breach of military duty, this being the constitutional method of dealing with such matters.

“In the Army, no less than in civilian life, an alleged offender is entitled to trial by a proper tribunal before any punishment is visited upon him.”