PREFERENCE TO SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 196, 14 May 1919, Page 6

PREFERENCE TO SOLDIERS

: a DEFENCE DEPARTMENT'S ATTITUDE. 1 An instruction that has teen issued is the Defence Department impresses upon officers commanding branches that prefer-' enco in the filling of positions is to bo given to returned soldiers, and that tern- • porary clerks and home service men are to be replaced as opportunity offers by returned menibers of the N.Z.E.F., .with similar qualifications. It is expected that the effect of.thie instruction, which emphasises a recommendation made previously, will bo to reduce substantially the number of men without active service experience em-, ployed by the Defence Department. Staffs are being, reduced as demobilisation .progresses, and the proportion of returned soldiers among: the men eventually retained will be high. During the war tho Defence branches had to enlarge their staffs enormously, , and naturally they found most of their new employees among girls, women, and men unfit for active service. Now the conditions have changed.- The.staffs are coming 'down elowly to normal propor' tious, and there are very many thousands of returned soldiers in tho Dominion capable of doing the work required by the Department. The desire of tha Defence authorities is that these men should have all Defence positions which they are desirous and capable of filling.