SOLDIERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 302, 15 September 1921, Page 4

SOLDIERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

QUESTION OF PREFERENCE

K.S.A. DISSATISFIED

Preference to returned soldiers in the Public Service was discussed at a general meeting of the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association last night. The secretary (Mr. R. J. F. Aldrich) stated that the preference which the Returned Soldiers’ Association had asked for and was assured it was getting was not being given by the Publid Service Commissioner.

Mr. Aldrich cited two cases, A returned man, he said, was employed in the Prisons Department at Auckland. Tho Inspeete- jf Prisons recommended the man io. romotion in Auckland. The reconime nation went to the Public Service Commissioner, who wrote that he did not approve of the appointment. Eventually a job in the Prisons Department became vacant at Wellington, and the returned man was again recommended. The Commissioner wrote back that be did not approve of the transfer or promotion of the soldier, and that the services of the soldier were' to be dispensed with 'as from the end of the month. Everyone present would know another man who had recently received notice to leave his job—a Maori boy with both legs off. He was now out of work, retrenched from, the Public Service. Eventually the meeting carried the following motion on a show of hahds; "That this meeting is still of opinion that preference is not being given in all eases to returned soldiers in tile Public Service; that tho meeting calls upon the Public Service Commissioner to retire all public servants eligible for superannuation by age or service; and that the executive be instructed to place all such cases of non-preferenee as may be brought under its notice before the Ministers concerned, demanding the carrying out of the Government’s previous promise that absolute preference shall bo given to returned soldiers.”