ALLOWANCES TO SOLDIERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22424, 10 June 1938, Page 12

ALLOWANCES TO SOLDIERS

REMARKS ATTRIBUTED TO MR SAVAGE

REPORT OF DISCUSSION QUOTED

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEOEAU.)

AUCKLAND, June 9. The date, "time, and place sought by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) concerning the remarks attributed to him by Mr J. W. Kendall, president of the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association, as to the pensions payable to burnt-out soldiers and civilian invalids were supplied by Mr Kendall, Mr H. Milden, vice-president, and Mr J. L. Faulkner.

They said they comprised a deputation of three from the association, which waited on Mr Savage at the Station Hotel, Auckland, at 9.30 a.m. on March 10, 1937. The deputation was introduced by the Hon. B. Martin, M.L.C., and they brought before the Prime Minister matters relating to war veterans’ allowance, a questionnaire of returned soldiers, war graves, and the employment of former soldiers. Notes were taken nf the Prime Minister’s answers to the points raised, and these were typed within an-hour of leaving him. They had been circulated to all branches of the association, and had been referred to publicly on many occasions since. The notes taken of the point atsissue state:—“ln drawing the Prime Minister’s attention to the .War Veterans Allowance Act, Mr Kendall stated that this act had not provided the relief intended. The allowance payable to the wives and children of ‘burnt-out soldiers’ was lower than the amount allowed the dependants of economic pensioners, invalids, and war and civil widows: Mr Kendall appealed to the Prime Minister to review the War Veterans Allowance • Act and amend the legislation so as to provide for many Imperial soldiers who are now hopelessly burnt out and a charge on charitable aid "boards and the association, and also to increase the rates payable to wives and children arid men in this category, as he stated that the man who had fought for his country was deserving of greater consideration than ordinary civilians. “The Prime Minister, answering Mr Kendall, stated that he and his Ministers had discussed this subject with the executive of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, who were satisfied with the present arrangements. He was not of the opinion that the ‘burnt-out’ soldiers and their dependants should receive better treatment than invalids, and, further, that Imperial soldiers would be adequately provided for under the national superannuation scheme, as soon as the necessary legislation could be passed.”