HELP NOT WANTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1938, Page 7

HELP NOT WANTED

ATTITUDE OF THE FOUR COLONELS CAN FIGHT THEIR OWN BATTLES. DECLARATION AT MEETING. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) GISBORNE, July 11. “It has come to my knowledge that certain Diggers feel the four colonels have been unjustly treated. I would like to make it quite clear that the four colonels can look after themselves. If they have been unjustly treated they know what they can do to secure redress. If they are wrong they will take what is coming. We don’t want the Returned Soldiers’ Association to assist us in any way. We can fight our own battles,” said Colonel R. F. Gambrill, speaking at a Returned Soldiers’ Association meeting. Colonel Gambrill is one of the four colonels who issued a manifesto describing as inadequate the statement on defence made by the Minister of Defence at Dargaville, and who have now been posted to the retired list.

“I thank those who felt that we needed help and they could give it, but we don’t want help,” Colonel Gambrill further gave an assurance that no political object dictated the action of the four colonels. A PROPOSED PROTEST. WAIPUKURAU, July 11. A meeting of returned soldiers of Central Hawke’s Bay has been called at Waipukurau for tomorrow evening for the purpose of “discussing the personal attacks made upon the four re-cently-retired colonels by a member of Parliament and appearing in the Press on July 8, 1938, with a view to passing an emphatic protest against this insult to returned soldiers and exservicemen.”