CIVILIANS ON TROOP TRAINS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2734, 31 March 1916, Page 6

CIVILIANS ON TROOP TRAINS

DEPARTMENTAL OBJECTIONS.

A request that men employed on thfi works at Feathersteu camp should be allowed to travel to town at week-ends by tho troop train leaving the camp at 0.10 p.m. on Saturday, and that; they should bo allowed to return by the Sun< clay evening troop train.from town, ha« recently been put before the railway aw tlionties by the workmen interested. A letter on the subject signed "One of tha Men, was published! in The Dominion on Monday, in which the reasonableness or the request was urged, and. otherletters on the subject have been r<H ceived.

Inquiries as to the ret sons why thd' request is not granted were made fron* the Defence Minister and from the RaiU way Department by a Dominion reporteV yesterday. It appears that both Depart-' m , en ! ;s ., have objections to the carrying;' ot civilians on troop trains'. The D<s fence Minister has objections on milw tary grounds. ■

On troop trains," said the Defence Minister, we have soldiers under dis. cipline, and we require the observance' of special regulations. -For instance, we" do not allow liquor on troop trains. AVa could not have the same control over, civilians as we now havj over soldiers* Also, I 6hould obect to civilians carried on troop trains if soldiers were to be shut out of those trains to make room for them."

A statement of the.reasons why the Railway Department object to the proposal was made by a responsible officer of tho Department. "Our first reason is that we cannot bring more than 500 people over the Bimutaka Incline in one train, and every troop train is filled to its utmost capacity with soldiers. We can't agree to take any civilians, on these trains because we have no room for them. As a matter of fact, the Defence Department want us to provide transport for more soldiers on thesa trains, but we are unable to do it. If it were possible, therefore, for us to [provide extra accommodation, the Defence people would have first call upon it. _ We could easily fill twice as many, trains from Featherston with soldiers if wo could supply them, but wa could not supply thorn. At present wa are bringing 3000 soldiers, into Wellington every Saturday—2ooo from Trentham and 1000 from Featherston, and we take most of them back the same night. This requires 58 i ehicles, and we can not spare any niore. One of our grievances now is" that on the return train to Featherston, leaving Wellington at 6.30 on Sunday night, we are already asked to carry more men than we undertake to carry. Our nrrangement is that the men we bring in from Featherston by the early train on Saturday afternoons shall return that; same night by the train provided, and that those wno leave by the 5.10 p.m. from Featherston shall return on Sunday night. It happens that numbers of men—whether they overstay their leave or not I don't know—come in by, the early trains on Saturday, do not return that nignt, and come along oh Sunday night to go back to camp by | the 6.30 p.m. train. It may yet hap- | pen that some men will be left behind if this practice continues. We do not contract to carry everybody that offers for this train, and we can't undertake to do it. The fact of the matter is that we' are finding it difficult enough' to carry out our present obligations in regard to the train services to the camps without undertaking any more."-

| We understand that there are something like 200 men working at Featherston, most of whom have their; homes at Wellington. Naturally, the married men are anxious to get home once a week, and under present arrangements can only do so by censing work, at. 3 p.m. on Saturdays and returning at mid-day on Monday by the ordinary passenger train. This means both loss of time and out-of-pocket expenses as well, the .latter amounting tr> about 18s. The difficulty raised by the Railway Department appears to be, a very real one, tint the Department might at least allow these men enfraoied on nublic works a snecinl concession on their week-end fares to and from Wellington.