TO GO INTO CAMP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1943, Page 3

TO GO INTO CAMP

MR C. G. SCRIMGEOUR VICTIMISATION ALLEGED. CONTROLLER MAKES STATEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. “Am I being sent into the Army for Army purposes or for other reasons?” asked Mr C. G. Scrimgeour, Controller of the Commercial Broadcasting Service, in a statement issued yesterday in which he announces that he is to enter a military camp on Tuesday of next week. “Is my case not discrimination and victimisation at its worst?” “The facts to which I draw attention will convince every right-thinking man and woman, whatever their politics, that it is possible for a Minister of the Crown or a Government, desiring to dismiss p public servant but having' no grounds that would commend themselves to public opinion, to discriminate against the public servant and take the course of railroading him into the armed forces,” said Mr Scrimgeour. “Immediately on such railroading' the public servant's mouth is shut by Army regulations. “There are in the broadcasting service at the present time a considerable number of men graded one for military service, each of whom has been appealed for on the ground of public interest. Many of these men have been called in earlier ballots than myself and are therefore younger men, and many of them with fewer children than myself. I am a married man over 40 with three children. Throughout all State departments a similar state of affairs exists.”

MINISTER CHALLENGED. Mr Scrimgeour stated that at the hearing of his appeal the Minister of Broadcasting, Mr Wilson, claimed that no appeal had been made because it was the attitude of the Government that Ministers should not appeal for subordinates. “I challenge the Minister to prove there are none in Parliament Buildings directly subordinate to a Minister of the Crown who have been appealed for,” said Mr Scrimgeour. After his public interest appeal was dismissed by the board and his calling up for military service deferred till May 15 on the personal grounds, “then came the next attempt to railroad me. Six days after the hearing the Minister suspended me.” Toward the end of May he received notice to enter camp on June 8 and on acquainting the Minister was informed by him of his intention to appoint as Acting-Control-ler a certain officer of the Controller’s department. “This officer is five years younger than myself and has only one child as against my three.” added Mi- Scrimgeour. “He is graded one for military service and on the recommendation of the Public Service Advisory Appeals Committee a departmental appeal for him was allowed before my own was dismissed. The Minister was just on the point of finalising the appointment when it occurred to him to inquire as a the officer's liability for military service. Of course, in an endeavour to satisfy public opinion some other appointee is now being sought.”