DESTRUCTION OF RADIO SETS NOT TRUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 212, 7 September 1945, Page 8

DESTRUCTION OF RADIO SETS NOT TRUE

(PA.J Parliament Bldgs,. Sept. 4. The Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones, in the House of Representatives to-day, replying to an urgent question by Mr. A. S. Richards (Govt., Roskill) sa'id his attention had been drawn to a report of a court case in Hamilton where a member of the Air Force was charged with Ihe theft of a radio from the R.N.Z.A.F., and stat’d to the Court that thousands of pounds worth of radio equipment had been destroyed at an Air Force signals epair unit headquarters in Hamilton. Mr. Jones said that h e had been advised that the airman in question stole a radio which had been sent in for repair, arid had been repaired. It was recovered from him before the action was taken, but the matter had been .'eported to the police and the airman • as summoned and accused of thievng the set. “His story, that he had been told, with 10 other airmen, to break up certain equipment, and that this radio was going to be broken up, was quite untrue,” continued the Minister. “I am advised that since the case was heard he apologised 1o one officer on his station for using the excuse that he made. No equipment has been dpi stroyed at Hamilton which would '(have been of any value to the public, ior could have been disposed of through the War Assets Realisation Board.”