NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1916, Page 3

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

I GETTING TO WINDWARD, RECRUITS FOR FLYING CORPS, . ;{From Our Own Correspondent.)' Wellington, Jan. 17. Among the men applying for permits to leave New Zealand within recent weeks have been some who stated that they wished to join the Flying Corps or enlist in other branches of the Imperial Fonts in the United Kingdom. The Department of Internal Affairs, which has to decide or not permits shall be issued to individual men, has had some difficulty in dealing with these cases and has evolved a special system to meet them. "The information that comes to hand through the English newspapers suggests that there are very few vacancies In the Flying Corps and other special branches and that New Zealanders who may go ito England without special qualifications, are scarcely likely to be granted commissions," said the Minister for Internal Affairs (Hon. G. W. Russell) when mentioning this matter today. "I am trying to get definite information through the Defence Department. If the men cannot get the positions that they are going Homo to seek, it seems scarcely worth while granting them permits.

''Applicants under this heading are being required in the meantime to sign sworn declarations before the proper authorities that they are going to Britain for the purpose of enlisting, that they will offer themselves for the branch of service they have selected, and that if they cannot get into that branch they will enlist for some other branch. They are required also to present themselves at the High Commissioner's office after their arrival in London and report what they have done; The High Commissioner is supplied with lists of the men who have been granted permits to leave New Zealand under these circumstances and he will report to my Department. There will be a record in New Zealand regarding all the men who are given permits to go to England to enlist."

WHERE IS IT? Two months have elapsed since applications closed for the three salaried positions on the proposed Board of Trade. The applications have been before Cabinet for many weeks past, but the matter rests there. The Board of Trade, in the meantime, remains a thing of the future and the Cost of Living Act, one of the important policy measures of last session, continues to be inoperative. The effort on the part of the National Government to deal with the cost of living problem was one of the conditions laid down by the Liberals in the negotiations that brought the present Ministry into existence. Inquiries on the subject in Ministerial circles indicate that the Ministers are not well pleased with the class of applications veceived, but it is time a decision of some kind was reached. THE MAHENO BLUNDER. The Defence Minister (Hon. J. Allen), is being blamed in many quarters for having allowed the hospital ship Maheno to return to the Dominion with a cargo of convalescent soldiers when the work could have been done just as well by an ordinary 'transport. Undoubtedly the return of the Maheno was a blunder. The soldiers she carried did not need tho equipment of a hospital ship and it was not desirable that the vessel should be away from the Mediterranean for several months at a time when the evacuation of Gnllipoli, and the occupation of Salonika, wore likely to result in heavy fighting and long casualty lists. The re-conditioning and re-commission-ing of the Maheno could have been effected just as well at Malta as at Port Chalmers. But the blame for what occurred does not rest with the Defence Department or its Minister. "The New Zealand Government did not bring back the Maheno," said Mr. Allen to-day. "We landed over the ship unreservedly to the Army Council, to be utilised in the best interests of the sick and wounded soldiers. The Defence Department was informed from London that the ship was coming back." We had nothing to do with her movements after she left here."

A STANDING JOKE. The old story of German officers in the New Zealand forces is revived by a correspondent of one of the local newspapers. The correspondent wants to know why the names of the sfficcrs of the !)th Reinforcements have been withheld and suggests darkly that the Defence Department is unwilling that the public should read "the German names appearing in these lists." The newspaper which published this communication published the official lists of the officers of the 9th Reinforcements at the beginning of last week, so that the correspondent's suggestion falls rather flat. These people who assume that every man bearing a name with a foreign sound must be a German in disguise (or a German who has not troubled to disguise himself), show a curious lack of acquaintance with the way the British nation has been built up. They appear, too, to have a very poor opinion of the intelligence of the officers of the Expeditionary Forces and Reinforcements. The German spy story is a standing joke in the' eamps.

COMMISSIONS IN IMPERIAL ARMY. , Members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces have complained, in letters written from England, that they have been refused permission to accept positions offered them in the Imperial forces. It appears that "lie War Office is willing to find places in British regiments for sons of the young New Zcalanders who were invalided Home from Gallipoli, but they cannot leave the New Zealand forces without the consent of the officer commanding. The Defence Minister (Hon. ,T. Allen), referring to this point yesterday, said that he had been in communication with General Godley regarding the transfer of promising young men from the New Zealand forces to British regiments. General Godley did not wisli to stand in the way of the'promotion of the men who had distinguished themselves at Gallipoli, but. 'obviously there were serious difficulties in the way of allowing the free transfer of non-commis-sioned officers and privates from the New Zealand units, which had to he maintained at the highest possible point ot efficiency. The present arrangement was to allow five or six transfers per month of New Zealanders who ■ could secure commissions in the Imperial Army. The door could not he opened wider just now. The' Minister mentioned that no definite decision had been reached yet concerning a suggestion that some of the men invalided to New Zealand should be allowed, on rejoining, to take commissions in Reinforcements. General Godley had asked that the matter should bo held over until he had completed the reorganisation that he had undertaken,