STEERAGE PASSAGES GRANTED.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14154, 17 April 1916, Page 6

STEERAGE PASSAGES GRANTED.

Apparently the trouble with the Defence Department over the granting of saloon passages -to returning soldiers below the rank of officers has not yet been overcome.' The men who returned by the Maheno, and came on to Nelson, by the Pateena on Saturday were only issued steerage permits, but fortunately Mr. Walter Snodgrass (secretary of the Sports Committee of the Sick and Wounded Soldiers' Fund) was in Wellington, and he arranged on behalf of the committee to guarantee the difference in the fares of the men.

Mr. T. A. H. Field, M.P., and Mr Snodgrass interviewed the Minister of Defence on the matter, and on inquiries being made it was ascertained that there had been a contravention of instructions.

■ The position, however, does not appear to bo quite satisfactory, and the Minister has promised to communicate further on the subject to Mr. Field.