STATE HOUSES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 198, 19 May 1944, Page 4

STATE HOUSES

Use By Service Personnel

The reference bv the Dominion executive of the Returned Services Association to the occupancy of State rental houses by service personnel, published yesterday, was replied to by the Minister of Works, Mr. Semple. He said that if a representative of the association had approached the Prime Minister who, as Minister in Charge of the State Advances Corporation, was responsible for the allocation of State rental houses, or himself, as Minister in Charge of Housing Construction, any fears the association had regarding the occupation of State rental houses by Service personnel might have been allayed. . “The Returned Services Association above all others.” said Mr. Semple, “should understand that accommodation had to be provided for Service personnel in various categories when th? war broke out. Generally this was done by the crecetion of barracks. The Government however, decided that in certain areas rather than erect barracks with no postwar use, it would tie better to erect blocks of State houses and use them temporarily as 'barracks, converting them Io civilian use when no longer required by the Services. . •The position regarding the occupation of these blocks of State rental houses is being very closely watched, and. as a matter of fact, at. this moment arrangements are being made to transfer certain Service personnel occupying State rental houses to other accommodation which has become available as the result of the vacation of certain camp sites. As a result 13 blocks of State houses will be available very shortly thereafter for occupation by civilians. Not every block of State rental houses oeenpied by Service personnel will be vacated, since many of them require to be accommodated reasonably close to the work they are engaged upon, and since the nation has not yet eeased to he at war. "All this information and much more would willingly have been made available to the committee of the Returned Services Association had it made the proper approach before it submitted' its report to the Dominion executive.”