INCONSIDERATE DEFENCE DEPARTMENT .

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 101, 29 April 1916, Page 4

INCONSIDERATE DEFENCE DEPARTMENT .

(To the Editor.)

Sir,——l wish to make public througli your valuable columns a. real grievance against the Defence Department. The depz-Irture of some of the 12th, Reinfol'cements -‘ms been delayed,‘ anti next-of-kin who wish to go to Wellington to say good-bye to their relatives do not know whether they are going or not. Enquiries made yesterday at the local Defence Ofl‘ice elicited the I'epl<y, f‘No information has been receivcd.”

Surely, Sir, if the Defence authorities do not wish the information published they could notify local Defence Offices so that next-of-kin could get the information they require, . I wish to quote a local case of hardship. A woman has her husband going, away, in the ,12th’s, but she cannot afford to stay a week in WellinJcon, and if she goes to Wellington, and her husband does not leave until the following week the chances are that she . will not see him at all, and has had an expensive journey for nothing, hh,, .rny: Surely the Defence authorities could . do something to enable next-of-kin to know when their dear ones are leaving ■ these shores, instead of keeping it a profound secret. In Wellington itself; • I understand, the matter is just as much public property as if it had been published.—l am, etc., NEXT-OF-KIN.