CALLING UP THE SECOND DIVISION.
To the Editor. Sir.—Until the Government roots out the thousands of shirkers now claiming exemption and gets them into camp and some one in authority answers satisfactorily the following questions, I trust Second Division men will ponder deeply —I am,, etc. FATHER OF SOLDIERS.
(1) How comes it tliat our Govern-, ment cannot afford to grant the requests of the Second Division League and yet can afford 10s 73d per head per day for the upkeep of interned enemy aliens (first-class) and 4s 5d and 3s Sd for the upkeep of the sceond-class internees? (2) Why the distinction first and sec-ond-class prisoners? The first class are evidently those who held good positions •in pre-war days (late Governor of Samoa for instance), and are probably Prussians and deserve to be treated a,s such and not kept in luxury, if all we read is true. (3) How many of your readers know that it has already.cost us nearly £50,,400 to keep these prisoners in 'idleness and luxury? And why is it the widows of New Zealanders killed while fighting with the British Expeditionary Forces Instead of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force have to exist on 14s per weekplus fw 3d for a- Child?
(4) Why has our Government entered into a fresh contract with the Colonial Sugar Co. amongst which, I understand, ■ire the following shareholders:—Karl Schaff (Bavaria) 14 shares, Paul Seeli»er (Germany) 88 shares, Mathilde Seeliger 101 shares, Julius Blaw 5 shares, Alfred Bollinhagen 20 shares, his wife 5 shares, Albert Borchard 13 shares, Max. Wureeker 149 shares, Felix *Webindorfer 25 shares. .Some of the latter were livin" in Australia and have been interned.
(5) Why, when the constant cry is for economy should it, as I understand, 'cost to furnish the offices of the Efficiency Board in Auckland £-203, Wellington £a«i, Christeliurch £2!)G, Dunedin £4lO, also have you noticed an item reported of £35,700 odd spent last year on messengers, office keepers, and charwomen in the Department of the Minister of Internal Affairs; also it is reported that £55,97G in excess of die amount voted was spent in the Post and Telegraph Department. What for and is this port of thing what we vote War Loans for?
(■6) Is it a fact that the two officers [ who were instrumental in having Private ■H. H. Thompson imprisoned (for stating that lie thought one was the worse for liquor) for 112 days, are both of German parentage and if so, why is it that these men are kept hero in soft billets and our own are sent away to that hell in France? Is this what Sir James Allen meant when he said "Leave my officers alone ?"
(7) And last, Wit not least, why is it that unless one reads other than the ordinary daily papers, he, or she, never hears 'of this sort of thing. Seems to me that it is not only the peoples of Germany that are being kept in the dark.
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Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1917, Page 3
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498CALLING UP THE SECOND DIVISION. Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1917, Page 3
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