DISAPPOINTMENT OF PARENTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2519, 21 July 1915, Page 5

DISAPPOINTMENT OF PARENTS

NO NOTIFICATION OF ARRIVAL 1 OF SOLDIER SONS. r Some questions regarding complaints of' relatives .of : returned soldiers as to tb'o non-receipt of notification of tho latter's ■ arrival at tho towns to which they belong were. put to the Minister for Defence; yesterday by Sir Joseph Ward.

Tho .first question was based upon- a telegram from' Wha'ngarei which appeared iii ail Auckland pape- yesterday regarding the cases of Privates' Davidson and Mudrock, who, it was stated, had arrived at'AVhangarei without'any prior notice from the' Defence Department. Sir Joseph' Ward asked' whether tho statement, in the telegram was correct. The Hon. J. Allen said that ho had heard', about tho. case, iit .question, and had telegraphed an inquiry, concerning it. He was very sorry if no notification had. been sent. ' The Department had supplied ccrtain of the returned soldiers, who were not hospital cases, orders for, railway tickets.'' Some of the. men elected not to go to Auckland by the special hospital train, but to go by another train of their'owrr selection, A special officer was sent with'the hospital train with instructions to notify the Mayors of different'towns of the expected arrival of soldiers.' going to such towns. As. some: men, however, went by other trains,,the matter was not an easy one to organise.-.-. Once- these men were allowed,to go on their own account, it was not, easy, to follow them or to keep trace of them.

Sir Joseph Wardi referred .to a similar mistake in the south. He said that through lack of intimation some parents and relatives had missed meeting men'returning by the Willochra at Lyttelton. They expected these men to arrive by. the Willochra, but a number of them 1 travelled from .Wellington, by the ferry, steamer. The ferry steamer train left Lyttelton before tho train arrived conveying friends and relatives to meet the Willochra. There was great dissatisfaction in Ohristchurch in connection with these cases.

The Hon. J. Allen said that he had not heard of the Lyttelton cases. In that case men were allowed to travel by the ferry steamer, if they chose, instead of the Willochra, and it was not luiown who had chosen the ferry steamer. He had not desired to inflict military discipline on the men to any greater extent than was necessary, but he now wished that ho had insisted oh every man going down by the- Willtchva. Ho had issued instruftions by which. Mayors of cities through which trains were going should be informed,.and also pa-ents notified of the time of their sons' arrival, as far as possible.. Sir Joseph Ward said that he thought it would nave been bettor to havo'allowed the whole of the men to go south by tho Willochra. Li that case the Mayor, and also the parents would have kaowu what was being done,