WAR MEDALS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 4

WAR MEDALS

ENGRAVING QUESTION HAMILTON R.S.A. TAKES EXCEPTION (P.A.) HAMILTON, March 14. The fact that Dominion headquarters of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association had apparently acquiesced in the Government’s plan to issue war medals and stars won. by members without having them \ engraved was criticised by members of the executive® of the Waikato R.S.A. last night, when it was decided to make a strong protest to headquarters and ask it to reconsider the question. Tt was said that more than three months ago the Waikato executive wrote to headquarters and reported that there was a returned serviceman in Hamilton with an engraving machine and he had engraved a large number of stars and medals for immigrant imperial servicemen. The name and number were engraved on the obverse side of the stars and on the edge of the medals. He said that he could comfortably engrave 12uu medals and stars each 44-hour working week, and he thouglit that there would be easily 20 sucli machines in the country. The Waikato executive had contended that if inscribing work was decentralised to 20 different places with such machines the work could be accomplished within 30 weeks. Even if there were only 12 machines in the country the task could be completed in less than one year.

Members of the executive were critical last night that no adequate reply had been received to this letter and that: the Government had already announced that it would issue medals and stars on application without them being engraved. It was mentioned that it had apparently been no trouble to inscribe the Empire Games medals onTnachines as soon as they were won.

After the-1914-18 war all returned servicemen had their stars and medals sent to them by registered post by Base Records and they were all inscribed, said one member. It seemed strange with the advances made in machines and methods, that it could not be done again 30 years later. ‘ “Very few of our members will bother to apply for their medals and the Government will have thousands of them left on their hands,” said the president, Mr S. T. Nolan. “1 think that the majority of our members would rather wait four years and get their medals properly inscribed than take them without inscription.” Some members were also critical of the fact that men had to ask for medals they were entitled to. The consensus of opinion was that the reason for an application form was to ensure that the medals went to the correct addresses.