Veterans' tour a 'cheap, nasty' insult

The Government has run into flak over plans to fly war veterans to the Solomon Islands for a quick stopover to commemorate the end of the war in the Pacific.

Former Kiwi servicemen and their supporters living in the Solomons are up in arms over the planned 4 1/2-hour visit on August 14 by about 85 World War II veterans.

The stopover follows a two-night visit to New Caledonia, where New Zealanders also served, and comes a day before the August 15 anniversary of the Japanese emperor's surrender announcement in 1945.

The veterans will fly straight back to New Zealand from the Solomons to attend the following day's 60th anniversary commemorations of the Japanese defeat.

The original plan was to fly veterans - most now in their 80s - and accompanying Defence Force staff to the Solomons capital, Honiara, for a three-day stopover to attend a memorial service and visit old battlefields and camps on the island of Guadalcanal.

The new schedule allows time only for a memorial service and a buffet lunch at the Honiara Hotel.

Honiara resident Alastair Martin said he and other former New Zealand servicemen in the Solomons were livid over the change.

"It seems as if New Zealand Veterans Affairs wants to do this on the cheap and it's a terrible insult to these veterans.

"It could, and should have been, a wonderful tour, paying homage to those who fell, and those still with us, but now it all seems cheap, hurried and nasty."

Honiara resident John Innes, an Australian who conducts regular weekend tours of Guadalcanal battlefields, said the new schedule was an affront to the veterans.

"It's just nonsense. Why bother to come here for lunch?

"Surely not all the veterans are that frail that this is the only possible schedule. I have US veterans who walk round the battlefields with me."

The NZ High Commissioner to the Solomons, Brian Sanders, said the veterans had to return home for the surrender commemorations.

He also cited age, health and cost factors. "It boiled down to not being able to be on the ground any longer."

The veterans were not young and were flying into a relatively tough climate out of a New Zealand winter and away from good medical care, he said.

"As you get older you don't travel as well as you used to. It knocks you round a bit. That has been a prime concern."

Cost was another factor, with a four-day trip by Boeing 757 with 170 people on board proving "a pretty expensive exercise".

The concerns expressed in Honiara had been passed on to the Foreign and Veterans Affairs Departments, Mr Sanders said.

New Zealand Army, Navy and Air Force units all served in the Solomons during the war.

Veterans Affairs made no comment last night.

- AAP