NEW ZEALAND FORCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1919, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND FORCES.

DEMOBILISATION TO BE FACILITATED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Wellington, -Jan. 13,

The welcome announcement that the demobilisation of the New Zealand forces is going to proceed more rapidly than was originally expected may be taken as authentic, though it is not made officially. The Allies have to maintain a big force on the Gorman border and elsewhere for some time to come, but it appears that the divisions required can be provided without retaining the colonial troops. The Imperial authorities recognise that the Australasian troops are relatively expensive to maintain and that the early stimulation of production in the overseas Dominions is highly desirable. The. New Zealand Government has asked that no opportunity of shipping troops tc this country should he lost and there is ground for believing that the request will be granted. If this is done, the shipment of fit men will begin in February, after the hospitals and convalescent homes have been cleared. The men are to come back in the order of their departure, .vith certain exceptions, so that 1914 men ought to begin arriving here in April. The promise to bring back Ihe men in order of length of service will necessarily be subject to many exceptions. The Maoris and the miners forming the Tunnelling Corps are to be brought hack almost at once. Then preference is to be given to miners, young men with incompleted apprenticeships and certain essential workers. Appeal may be made for the early return of men for business or domestic reasons.

The speeding up of demobilisation will increase the anxieties oE the Repatriation Board. This Board has held various meetings lately and it has made some progress with its work. But the repatriation scheme is not as far advanced as it ought to have been at the present stage of the war. The district committees'have still to be created and assigned their definite spheres of duty. The" arrangements for finding employment for the big masses of repatriated men seem to be still in skeleton form. Much work has got to be done very quickly now if delay and. friction are to he avoided when tie fit men begin to land at New Zealand ports.