INTERNMENT CAMPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 February 1918, Page 4

INTERNMENT CAMPS.

RESPONSIBILITY NOT CLEABLT , 'DEFINED. j (From Our Own Correspondent)'. Wellington, Feb- 12. * The evidence taken hero to-day *JI« the court of inquiry regarding the Motuihi affair did not throw much new light upon the recent events. Colonel Tate, tlie Adjutant-General, expUune*a that in writing seven or eight ago, "I must take the responsMity for thu whole show (the Motuihi .internment camp) and I fear trouble whea Parliament meets," he had in mind the fact that the Minister of Defence was being bombarded with questions regard* ing the treatment of interned Getanans. The letter had been written to Colonel Patterson, officer commanding the Auckland District, because the Adjutant-GeiM eral was under the impression thatColotiel Patterson supervised Motuihi I** land. "It was quite impossible for me to look into all the files," said Colonel Tate, "and nothing had been brought to ,rny notice- which caused me to believe that, the usual chain of responsibility, was nob in existence-" It would not have occurred to him to write dtel J t I *<» Colonel Turner, the conrnmndaat of the camp. . General Robin. Commandant of the Forces, said he still held that the normal chain of responsibility had not been disturbed. That was to say, (District Head* quarters at Auckland was responsible for the internment camp. _ The rest of the evidence 'heard during the day related chiefly to the question of how a sentence reading "Administrative correspondence shdW be address* , eil through District Headquarters, Auckland," came to be exercised from the letter of instructions handed to Colonel Turner when he took charge at Motuihi. It.had been suggested that the effect of this excision was to transfer responsibility for the control of the island, to General Headquarters, which hag full 1 control of tho other internment camp, Somes IslandColonel Gibbon, Chief of tho General Staff, said that he did not remember having seen the letter at all, and Colonel Hume, formerly officer commanding the Auckland District, said he hao" considered Motuihi Island to be under, his supervision.