No Decoration, Sir!

Australian Bureaucrats Have the Last Word

THERE is a new chapter to add to the remarkable history of Mr. A. J. Car fax Foster and the Australian bureaucrats.

The early wartime experiences of Mr.

Carfax Foster —who is now a resident of Lautoka, Fiji—were told, some years ago, in the PIM. He was on the reserve of officers in NSW, in 1937, when he suffered a bad accident, in camp, and was paid compensation, and discharged from the Army. War came in 1949; and it then appeared that he was still on the reserve of officers, and he was called up at once.

He was given full-time duty on the General Staff; and was recommended for promotion to major in February, 1940, and lieut.-colonel in April, 1940. Neither ap pointment came through, because the Army had now discovered that he had been “compensated” for accident. He was put before a Medical Board, and dis charged.

Mr. Carfax Foster then enlisted in the AIF as a private and passed as medically fit. He was made a sergeant six days later and served for several months. He was about to sail for Malaya (and a prison camp) with the Bth Division when the men higher up discovered his Army his tory, put him again before a Medical Board—and out he went.

Nothing daunted, Mr. Carfax Foster joined the American forces, and was em ployed for a long time on “the small boats,” wherein he had some lively ad ventures in the New Guinea area—es pecially as master of the famous little Myena. Then he got bad malaria, and

the Americans sent him back to base, to the Procurement Division, where he was an “administration executive” (a high office).

The Americans recommended that he should receive the Medal of Freedom with Gold Palm, for conspicuous service both on the small ships and in the Procure ment Division. He duly received the Southwest Pacific Area Medal and the Mercantile Marine Combat Bar; but the coveted Medal of Freedom never arrived.

Finally, he made an inquiry. He was in formed by the Americans that the Aus tralian Socialist Government had set it self resolutely against the award of such decorations to Australian civilians, and so the matter had not been proceeded with. Yet the humble civilians were al lowed to receive the less important medals.

In the view of the bureaucrats, when Mr.

Carfax Foster accepted compensation, he was no longer capable of rendering ser vice. When the war came, and every trained man was worth his weight in gold, Carfax Foster was sufficiently re covered to serve his country. The bureau crats would have none of him—better the loss of a trained man than a broken regulation. So he got in his war service with the Americans —and so effectively that they proposed to decorate him. But again the little men with the big authority stepped in—the regulations would not permit it.

Mr. Carfax Foster now regards it all as a funny story—but it is more than that.

It is a really remarkable example of red tape in its worst colours.

Mrs. E. Sprott, MBE, of the Melanesian Mission, who has given such valuable service to the Solomons for 30 years, has retired. She left for England on the Strathmore in March.