DEPARTMENTAL CARELESSNESS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13825, 21 July 1915, Page 3

DEPARTMENTAL CARELESSNESS.

SUMMONING DEAD SOLDIERS

"Will the Minister of Defence instruct his officers to be more careful in sending notices to men to attend drill?" asked Mr Witty this afternoon. The member went on to give the reason for his request by stating that notices . were continually coming for a young man who had lived in Riccarton,. but went away w^fch the Expeditionary Force last year. This man i was killed in action last April, yet the parents were still receiving notices, noti only demanding the attendance of their son at drill,, but demanding also the reirurn of lus rifle and equipment. As a matter of fact the young man in question never had a uniform or a lifle at home, as he left shortly after joining the Territorials. Mr Witty instanced another case of a similar nature, anu suggested that proper precautions should be taken to spare parents sucn trouble and indignity when their sons were fighting at the Dardanelles and had perhaps died on the field or were lying wounded at the time such importunities were being made by departmental officers on the soldiers' relatives. • , » The Mixiister asked for the names of the men mentioned by Mr Witty, ami promised to iiiake inquiries.