ARMY SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23976, 17 June 1943, Page 3

ARMY SERVICE

GRADING AND FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES INQUIRY SUGGESTED From Our Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, June 16. A suggestion that an inquiry into the sending of men with families into the Army, while younger men with less family responsibility remained in civil occupations was warranted, was made by Mr H. G. Dickie (Opposition, Patea) in the House of Representatives this evening. , , x , Mr Dickie said he wanted to speak about manpower generally, and would say as little as he could about the Scrimgeour incident. He was no admirer of Mr Scrimgeour who, perhaps, was getting a little of what he deserved; but the facts disclosed would be unsettling to the people of the country. In Mr Scrimgeour's case the proposed substitute was a younger man. also grade 1, with fewer responsibilities. He had raised the question before, when he had mentioned the case of a grade 3 man who could not get out of camp to look after a farm for the owner, who was flying an aeroplane overseas, and the case of a grade 1 man with no children who had got a snug job in the Public Service. The Minister had inquired into the position of the grade 3 man. What had happened to the other man he did not know. Now it looked as though this sort of thing was happening more than they knew. There should be an inquiry into it. “It doesn’t look like a fair deal to me,” Mr Dickie concluded.