FURLOUGH FOR MAIN BODY.
l-lOME GOVERNMENT'S OBJECTION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) A Wellington, Den. 22. Disappointment is still being expressed in some quarters at the abandonment of the proposal to grant furlough in New Zealand to the members of the Main Hotly still in the Expeditionary Force, and there seems to be an idea abroad that the Government here was to blame for the decision. "The New Zealand Government hoped to have had here at this Christmas time many of those New Zealand soldiers who did so much, both in Gallipoli and France, in the cause of Empire, and who brought, honor and glory to the name, of New Zealand," said Mr. Massey in referring to this matter to-day. "But it was not to be. The New Zealand Government, on the urgent representations of the Imperial Govern uient, was forced to abandon the ar rangements made for bringing- on" leave to New Zealand the remaining member* lof the Main Body.. The Government had [ no course in honor but to accept the request of the Home Government. The facts of) the position were disclosed to the members of the House of Representatives, who fully endorsed the decision of the Government under the circumstances."
The reasons of the imperial Government for practically vetoing the proposal have not been fully disclosed in public. It is understood that one of the principal reasons was the extreme difficulty of providing transports and escort for additional bodies of troops verseas, and the impossibility of oonfiningthe concession to New Zealand soldiers. Similar privileges would have had to be granted to Canadian, Australian, and South African soldiers, and a substantial number of transports and warships would have been employed. Then there were i grave objections fr9m the military point of view to withdrawing from the force* at the front a. large body cf the most experienced officers- and men. The proportion of officers would have been particularly high, owing to the promotion gained by the Main Body men.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19171226.2.41
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 26 December 1917, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
330FURLOUGH FOR MAIN BODY. Taranaki Daily News, 26 December 1917, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in