TROOPSHIP "GRAFT."

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3025, 12 March 1917, Page 4

TROOPSHIP "GRAFT."

INQUIRY TO BE MADE. . Tho sensational story of "graft" on a. certain j\ T cw Zealand troopship told by Mr. H. D. Bedford, of Duucdin, was brought under the notice of tho Defence Minister (Sir James Allen) hy a, Dominion reporter on Saturday. Sir .Tamos Allen said that Mr. Bedford had submitted to him a document signed by a number of responsible non-commissioned officers on the ship, in which they stated that certain things were sold to them which ought not to have been sold to them. This statement had; been submitted for inquiry. "I should say," added Sir James, "that theso are recurring troubles. AVe havo hoard of similar affairs before, and always wo havo inquiries made. Sometimes tho charges are proved groundless, but in at least onci case that 1 can recollect, and probably in more, a man was dismissed from tho steamship company's service as a. result of an inquiry. Every time we..get a. notification of wrong practices on board) a troopship wo hold an inquiry. This buying and selling of things that ought not to bo bought and sold seems to bo a practice on board troopships. I don't say that it is a, common practice, but it is a very unsatisfactory practice, and we have to do our best to stop it."