"ONLY ONE SLEEPLESS NIGHT."

Taihape Daily Times, 25 June 1919, Page 5

"ONLY ONE SLEEPLESS NIGHT."

E DEPARTMENT ’S HARD TASK. U “During the whol-e of the war ,;.period I think I had only one sleeplless night,” stated Sir James Allen ’ at Palmerston North,‘ recently. Voices: When was that‘! ’ Sir James Allen: “'l‘ha.t. is :1 secret iof my own, aid I am going to keep t it.” He was referring to his work as [Minister for Defence, and said he "realised that, at the beginning of the war he was a very unpopular man, but i it had to be remembered that he was in» process of estuhlisliing out of nothing a huge nracliine, so taht. New Zealand could take its proper share ill the great war. He had been freely criticised, and he had henefited by that criticism. The machine was never perfected, for the simple reason that it could never have been made perfect_ ‘ The Department, too, had made 111iS-1; tukeS——lle a-'d,mil*ted thaftr However,l there were two outs-tandin-g incidents, which occurred while 110 was Mini.-stori l.’orADefenc.e which he would never t'or- I get. One took place in Auckland when ,= he mixed with the rank and file, when the first of the married men with one child were being mobilised. As he walked through the ranks several men were eager to shake hands with him.{ He realised then that they did not re-I‘ gard the Minister for Defence as their ,‘ enemy. The other incident concerned? his staff. He had always been blamed . forstzniding to too great. an extent behind his officerh. Had he not 11-ad the complete eonficlenee of his oifieers, and '

made it clear to them \t_lla.t”they enjoyed the full confidence of the Minister, "the machine he had referred to would never have worked .satisfaetorily_ Since the armistice had been signed he had learned that it was an understood thing among his ofiicers never to lot‘ the Minister down. .