REPATRIATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 262, 24 July 1918, Page 4

REPATRIATION

TASK OF LOCAL COMMITTEE. In General Orders it is notified that a committee consisting of the principal- of tho staff officers in Wellington has been appointed a Demobilisation Committee. The authorities here have had the problems of demobilisation under consideration for 6ome time, for tlic business was considered to be too big to be allowed to wait until tho end of tho war. Tho scheme really consist? of two parts—the embarkation of tho men in Britain and Egypt, and the release of the men here. It is with tho second scries of questions that the local committee will have to deal. It will havo to direct the demobilisation of the soldiers, and will have to consider euch matters as the terms of. discharge aJid the amount,of leave with pay to )k allowed. Other repatriation questious, such as the employment of tho men, and generally the absorption of them into the civil population, will rot bo the concern of the Defence. Department, although it will Ire the duty of the committee to keep in touch with the Discharged Soldiers' Department, which will have to deal with tho men after discharge. This Department had a. small beginning, but it has since grown into a fairly big concern, and it has developed a splendid organisation, which will bo useful when the big bodies of men come back. When that time comes it may to one of the most important Departments of the State.