REPATRIATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 67, 13 December 1918, Page 4

REPATRIATION

OFFICERS TO BE APPOINTED,

The Repatriation Board held ,i preliminary meeting yesterday, but no announcemont as- to what was done or i 3 being done was, given by the chairman of the board (Mr. Hemes). It is understood that the Director of Repatriation will be Mr. J. R. Samson, secretary of the Discharged Soldiers' Information Department,- and that' Mr. J. D. Gray, lately secretary of the Recruiting Board, will be secretary to the board.

| RETURNED SOLDIERS' PROTEST. At a meeting of tho Executive Committee of the Wellington: Returned Soldiets Association held on Wednesday evening the following resolution was iraonimously carried :-"That this committee records its strong protest against not only the provision made in the Repatriation Bill for a Board of Ministers'but also the manner in which the whole Kill was rushed through Parliament, i'urthor, it is nf the opinion that no appointment should:be made to the position of Director of ■ Repatriation until applications for that position are invited through tho medium of the public Press. Tho committee expressed keen disappomtment that its representations to the Government and members of Parliament strongly supported by returned soldiers and pother organisations throughout the Dominion, that there should be one Minister of Repatriation and a Central Repatriation Board, composed of leading business men and representatives of tho«o organisations vitally interested, were ignored. ludignation was also expressed that party politics should have been introduced, as was ampiv proved, it was asserted, by the division list on the Bill, into such a highly important national question, and it was hoped that those members who spoke against the Bill when it was under discussion in the House, and voted for it: when the division was taken, would be given an opportunity to explain their attitude.