ENEMIES GET THE BEST OF IT

Taihape Daily Times, 16 October 1917, Page 4

ENEMIES GET THE BEST OF IT

It is also credibly reported that the Defence Department compelled the Railway Department to show discourteous treatment towards two elderly ladies in order to show extreme courtesy to Germans. This incident occurred. On the railway journey from Auckland to Wellington. The ladies were told, there was no sleeping-berth accommodation on the train because the sleeper was monopolised by the German prisoners! That elderly ladies should suffer the long journey whilst foes can spread themselves in luxury is going over the limit. But it is all of a piece with the luxurious manner in which the Defence Department ia treating German prisoners on the island in Auckland harbour where the cost of keeping per day is actually more expensive than if our "guests'* were put up at the Grand Hotel. The "swell guests" have provided for them, regardless of c|st—and it is not at the expense omont | Defencers, but out of the of the taxpayers who maintain our unprofitable, unbusinesslike Defencers. No wonder the Finance Minister criesj out that he cannot make both ends meet with the wastage of money;