STAFF OFFICERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3154, 4 August 1917, Page 8

STAFF OFFICERS

ANXIOUS FOR FIELD SERVICE

STATEMENT BY SIR JAMES ALLEN,

The Minister of Defenco (Sir .Tames Men) made a statement in tho House of Representatives yesterday, in reply to questions that had been placed on tho Ocder Paper concerning tho position of Staff officers concerning the position of the front. Ho said tho questions seemed to contain an insinuation that was unfair to officers .who woro serving tho Do-, minion very capably nnd usefully. When the original Main Body loft Now Zealand the Government had retained certain officers who woro very anxious indeed to go to tho front. The reason fop retaining them was found in tho necessity for training and dispatching reinforcement drafts at regular intervals. The wisdom of the stop had been proved ' abundantly. Tho General Officer Commanding (Sir Alfred Robin) had sought repeatedly to bo allowed to proceed to the front. He had been ordered to stay here, whoro his services wcro needed. The Chief of the General Statf (Colonel Gibbon) had applied over and over again for permission to. go. . The reply had always been ajrefusal, and it would continueito'be- a refusal, for the very good Teason that there was no similarly qualified officer available to tako over his present duties. Colonel Mncdonald was another Imperial officer who had been fetained in.New Zealand against;his will because his services in tho' "training campa were of exceptional value. Both these officers had made a sacrifice by staying, since they would certainly have attained higher rank than they held now if they had been allowed to go to tho front. Reference had been raado to the "Camp Commandants, Colonel Porter and Colonel Adams. He did not think those officers needed any defence from him. Members: No, no. Sir James Allen: I will leave it to the public and the House to judge. If there are aspersions cast upon the camp commandants by these questions, then they are undeserved. The publio knows tl-at they are undeserved, and the men who have been through the camps know. We have sent to the front practically every Staff officer who is fit and who is not ■urgently required here. The Minister proceeded to reply to suggestions that the Defence staff lacked business ability. Most of the efficers, he said, wore business men who had been drawn from civilian occupations. They had not lost their business knowledge when they donned the uniform. It seemed to him that there were some persons who sought to cast aspersions on the uniform. • Mr. Wilford (Hutt): Not in this House. Sir .Tamos Allen: lam not en sure. Mr. Jennings (Taumnrunui): It is not the uniform; it is the swagger. ..' Sir James Allpn: "I do not find any swagger in Now Zealand soldiers. I have jiever seen it." The Minister proceeded to state +he civilian occupations of officers of the camp staffs. They included ■lawyers, farmers, agents,, clerks, Civil Servants, drapers, factory inspector, merchant, and accountant. One bayonet "fighting instructor was a solicitor. Mr. Wilford: He sliould know how to ■charge. Tho Minister added that ho thought 'it highly undesirablo that the names of 'officers who were doing their duty in Jfew Zealand should be used in questions that contained innuendoes.