NO LEAVE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 586, 27 December 1915, Page 10

NO LEAVE.

SOLDIERS LOSE XMAS.

RAILWAY DEPARTMENT REFUSES TRAINS.

SHIRKERS AND GAD-ABOUTS FIRST.

[Special to The Sun.]

WELLINGTON, December 27

Some 2000 soldiers of the Tauhererikau Camp failed to get Christmas leave, owing to the failure of the Railway Department to provide transport. /The Defence authorities had consented to grant general leave, but the Railway Department announced that it could not carry more than a limited number of soldiers on the trains during the holiday season, owing to the "necessity" of making provision for the civilian holiday traffic.

The position is described in the following extract from a letter written in camp:—"The Defence authorities have granted three days' leave to. all the men in camp, but the Railway Department refuses to carry more than 500 men on Thursday and 500 on Friday to Wellington. It will not provide any troop trains or allow men to travel on ordinary trains. "The admitted reason is that holi-day-makers and race goers require all the accommodation, so the fellows in khaki, many of whom will not see another Christmas, are not to spend this one at home.

"It is not the fault of the Defence authorities here, but of the Railway Department, and of public opinion, which does not demand a fair thing for the troops. These fine fellows, who have given up wife, children, and everything else, to do their duty, have to take what is left after the shirkers and irresponsible gadabouts are provided for."