A MINISTER FOR REPATRIATION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16155, 8 March 1918, Page 6

A MINISTER FOR REPATRIATION.

PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION'S SUGGESTION. (special to "the press.") WELLINGTON, March 7. The Patriotic Associations' Advisory Board passed a resolution to-day in favour of the appointment of a Minister for Repatriation. The executive is to wait on tho Prime Minister on the subject as soon as a mooting can bo arranged. The official view, it is understood, is that thore are very strong reasons against tho making of such an appointmont as the Board seems to have in mind, and that thero are no such strong reasons against so-called divided control. If a Minister were to he appointed with power to deal with ah' questions affecting returned soldiers, he would need to spend a great deal of money, and occasionally he would have to decide important questions of policy. For this reason, it is urged, he wouhf have to consult continuously with his colleagues in Cabinet. In the end tho result would bo inevitably that Cabinet would deal with ino:t of the matters of importance. Details in connexion with repatriation are most efficiently dealt with under tho present Discharged Soldiers' Information Department. Now that the Lane? for Settlement Branch and tho Soldiers' Land Settlement Branch of tha. Lands Department are held by tha Prime Minister, who also has control of tho Discharged Soldiers' Information Department, thero is virtually no repatriation work done by a ny other Minister. The preparation of schemes for absorbing a big body of returned men rapidly is one in which not one department but many departments must have a hand, as the'men cannot be made into farmers or clerks or navvies. It is pointed out that thero must be co-opera-tion among departments and among Min.'stcrs for the development and carrying out of the schemes. No ono Mmister could' ever control tho officers of another department, and no efficiency would be achieved by attempting to bring all the control of returned soldiers' affairs under one Minis or, who should, it is suggested, have no other duties.