Compulsory Military Service

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6568, 20 September 1948, Page 4

Compulsory Military Service

After a long debate on compulsory military service, a meeting of the Auckland Trades Council decided to adjourn the discussion and refer the question to all its affiliated unions. Resolutions opposing conscription were forwarded to the council by the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. A recommendation of the executive that, if a defence force must be built up, its democratic basis must be universal military training, was defeated.

Poor Living Conditions Eight elderly men—five of them World War I veterans —are living like hermits in shanties at Riverhead and Brigham’s Creek, 25 miles from Auckland. Two others died recently. These facts were revealed by an inquiry instigated by the chairman of the Waitemata County Council (Mr A. Bishop) and the Western Suburbs Services’ Association. Most of the men will be transferred to the Veterans’ Home and the Cornwall Hospital. Seen by a reporter of an Auckland daily, two of the men presented a pathetic picture. One in rags and barefooted, and another bearded and infirm were shouldering pieces of tree trunk to chop for a fire. The huts are weatherproof but the interiors are filthy and rat-infested. The county council has issued demolition orders.