WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 May 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE LUCKY DENTISTS. 4 " PROFESSIONAL ARMY PAY. WELLINGTON, May 15., ' The Defence Expend! sion concluded its sittin 0 yes. terday and to-day the members left for Palmerston, where in the quiet of the agricultural capital of the Norths, they will prepare their report. One of the last witnesses examined by the Commission was Lieutenant-Colonel T., A. Hunter, Director of Dental Services, who, after claiming that great credit was due to the profession and the members of the dental corps for sacrifices they -had floundered rather pathetically in his efforts to emphasise the point. The Chairman, while recognising the value of the corps, wanted to know why dental men should receive professional pay, and the Lieutenant-Colonel could urge only that they had given up their practices and that the Army had had the benefit of their training and experience. ’ Following up the subject Sir Robert Anderson asked the witness if he could tell the Commission of any other country in which professional pay was given. The Lieu-tnant-Colonel could not.

THE COMMISSION’S REPOKjL The Chairman, of Course, domihsted the whole of the public proceedings of the Commission and, no doubt, will, be responsible, for the tone and tenor of its report. This implies no reflection upon his colleagues, who have supplied the local knowledge and Indicated the directions in which inquiry and investigation should proceed, thus materially lightening Sir Robert’s labours and facilitating his conclusions. What these conclusions, will be it is not easy to predict, for though the Chairman has been singularly frank and pointed in his comments his purpose, obviously, has been, to elicit information rather than to foreshadow any opinion he may haveto express later on. It is tolerably safe to say. however, that he will go to the very root of the matter and that the whole of the defence expenditure will be passed under the most searching review. This is what the- • public is paying for and it will not find its money wasted. EXEMPTIONS. In addressing a large meeting of members of the Second Division League here last night the Chairman of the National Executive laid it (Saturn most emphatically that the desire' of the League was to assist the’ Govern4|| ment in its administration of the Mill-" itary Service Act and claimed that its efforts to secure adequate provision .for the dependents of the men goingaway were directed towards tha’t end, A majority of the members present at the meethig, however, showed a disposition to kick against the wholesale exemption of First Reservists— 1 ' 1 they were sick and tired of exeniptions, as one of their speakers put it'. —and finally they passed a resolution demanding the immediate review of all sine die exemptions and the acceptance of physical fitness as the only factor in determining wnether or not a man should be in the military forces with the single exception of men permanently employed in . essential national work, INDUSTRIAL CONSCRIPTION. The conference of trades unions held here on Monday night to discuss the proposals of the Government for “industrial conscription,” while fully representative of the local unions, was. scarcely entitled to speak for th e rank and file of the workers. The language of the resolutions adopted by the conference was temperate enough, “protests” and “requests”' taking the place of the usual tions” and “demands,” but, the fact that Mr. Hindmarsh’s vote in Parliament is in favour of the Government’s action was called in question suggests that political feeling was not altogether absent from the gathering. As a matter of fact the Labour member for Wellington South, whose scrupulous loyalty to his party has cost him more than his critics will ever know, was with Mr. Veitch among the foremost in obtaining assurances from the Government that the so-called industrial conscription would not operate to the disadvantage of the workers.