DEPARTMENTAL MUDDLING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 66, 17 November 1915, Page 4

DEPARTMENTAL MUDDLING.

.Much comment has been made from time to time regarding the treatment of men who have registered and been kept in suspense for months, or who have been passed and' instructed to proceed to Trentham, there to be rejected on some trivial ground or through some blunder of district officers. Two more cases have, within the last day or two. come under the notice of the Taranaki Herald. One of them is that of a farmer who enlisted in this district two or three months,ago, passed his medical" inspection, and*sold his farm ami stock at a sacrifice, and then, because the local .contingent leaving for Trentham at that time was made tip, went to Palmerston in the hope of finding a vacancy there. There, however, he was turned down and later was told that on no account could he be accepted. He returned to Taranaki and took another farm, and now his name appears in a list of men who are instructed to proceed to Trentham to join the Tenth Reinforcements. It is quite possible that the man is really physically unfit, but in that case he should not have been passed in the first place, and he has good cause of complaint against the authorities in that he has lost a lot of time as well as a considerable sum jof money. The other case the Herald gives is that of a young fellow who registered a few weeks ago. presented himself for medical examination and was told that his sight was not good enough. He was very keen upon going, and sound in wind and limb, so the doctor said he might he able;to, get into the Army Service Corps. Anyhow a week or two later he received notice from Hawera that he was accepted and must* hold himself in readiness to proceed to Trentham. though he must not leave his employment until he received further instructions. Some days later he received another notice, from. Hawera informing him that ho was posted to the infantry in the Tenth Reinforcements and that he must, present himself at the Coronation. Hall last Monday evening to proceed to Trentham. He left his employment on a farm .on Saturday and went to his home in New Plymouth in order to be ready to leave on Monday evening. Last Saturday afternoon his late employer brought him a letter from the Hawera. Defence Office telling him that a mistake had been made in calling up the quota for the Tenth Reinforcements and that his papers had been mixed up with those that had been passed fit, and cancelling his previous instructions. Npt. a word of apology or regret, and the note was written on a little scrap, of paper, without any official printed heading, and it was only'by the'merest chance that he received the letter at all. Now this young fellow has thrown up' his billet and made every preparation to leave; his employer has been put.to some, expense and much inconvenience to'fill his place; all because of the blundering of the Defence authorities..' Our contemporary gives other instances of inexcusable muddlement, and we quite agree that after fifteen months there ought to lie better organisation. It has been suggested that it would be a good idea to send a lot of the present office sol-j diers to the front—or at least to ; Camp, and replace them by citizens, who have had training in accuracy and business detail. Such men might lack ' military knowledge, but they could, surely do mere office work better than 1 military men whose services in offices are being more or less wasted. The' country was rather under the impres-1 sion tliat it paid for a permanent mili-j tary for military work. Men of business ability, utterly unfitted for actual campaigning, could quite well attend to the routine of registration and en- ' listment. . •;