THE HON JAMES ALLEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 317, 17 June 1915, Page 8

THE HON JAMES ALLEN.

THE LOSS OF HIS SOX.

A HAUD-WOKKED MINISTER,

(IP.y Wire—Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Last Night. "Messages of sympathy have reached the Hon. James Allen from all parts of New Zealand and of the Empire since the publication of the news that his son, Lieutenant J. H. Allen, had ibecn killed in action. New Zealand's Minister for Defence is a soldier himself, and lie lias iliorne his loss in the soldierly fashion, carrying on the duties of his plfiee without pause. Mr. Allen 'was out at Trentham to-day dealing with some of the problems that demand his attention almost daily, and it would toe a fairly safe assumption' that the light is burning in his room at the present moment, (indicating that he is busy with the masses of reports and memoranda that come under his hands.

The administration of the Defence Department during the last nine months may not have been perfect, though that is a question upon which there can be no public discussion until the .war is ended, but of this there is no doubt that as Minister of Defence the Hon. James lAllen has worked unilaggingly and unselfishly with the single purpose of conducting New Zealand's share of the war in the, most effective possible way. lie has had to take orders as well as igive them. Sometimes, when he has been carrying out the instructions of the Imperial authorities, he has had to accept silently the, criticism of the people, who do not know all the facts or the conditions. He has had to take the blame for other people's mistakes, and to create precedents to adapt means to circumstances and rules to conditions. He has been probably the hardest worked man in New Zealand, and lie has remained painstaking, courteous and accessible. In the deon sorrow that has fallen upon him he has the sympathy of every citizen of New Zealand.