WASTAGE OF CROPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 43, 25 January 1944, Page 5

WASTAGE OF CROPS

GOVERNMENT CRITICISED

SLOW RELEASE OF MEN

While peas and cabbages are being ploughed in„ potatoes are rotting in the ground, and dairy farmers are selling their herds# the Australian Government's! scheme to release. 20,000 soldiers from the for food production is proceeding slow)}'. Fewer than 200 soldiers have been transferred since the scheme was announced on October 1, says the Christchurch Press. The Minister for the Army, Air Forde, said in Canberra that the plan for release of the soldiers was| ''gathering impetus" and a code governing the conditions of release had been prepared; but the Cabinet's decision to appoint a sub-com* mittec to inquire into delays, at least indicated that uneasiness on the part of some members. Mr F. Finnan,, a Labour member in the. New South Wales Parliament, said iu the Legislative Assembly that "Army Brass. Hats, arc ignoring the decision of the Gurtiu Government." He spoke of cases; where "moral suasion" had been used by commanding officers to dissuade men from applying for a transfer. "In spite of denials' by Mr Forde," said Mr Finnan, ''I can prove that soldiers whose release has, been sought have, been called out in front of their mates and asked by their commanding officers if they were going to run away from the Army." In his own district of Gosl'ord, he said, hundreds of applications by the War Agricultural Committee had resulted in the release of two men. "An application I made, for the release of a soldier who served in the Middle East and New Guinea, so that he could assist his nearblind father and invalid mother on their farm, was refused," he added. "This boy has vjiad nine, attacks cf malaria, and is rated medically secoad class. While his release wasj rc~ fused, his mate, the son of an hotelkeeper, was release J so that he co'iid assist his father's public houe. An-, other soliiier, medically second class is> badly wanted on his; parents' farm, yet he is kept sorting letters in Sydney."