WOUNDED MEN'S TROUBLES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 230, 27 September 1915, Page 11

WOUNDED MEN'S TROUBLES.

PAY RECKONED INADEQUATE. '

MUCH NOT FORTHCOMING. j NO RATION ALLOWANCE. A well-attended inciting of returned goWiers nas held in the Soldiers' Club on Saturday afternoon for the purpose of ventilating certain jrievaiu-cs which the jnen consider should he remedied at oiu-e l)V the authorities. It wus explained tint the desire of the meeting was to act only throiijjh tbe proper channels. The principal grievance referred to was j the decision of the authorities not to I psv invalided soldier* the usual ration I allowance nf V a day. Uiie speaker ! stated that as a married man he re- j ceived 8/ a day— £2 •!, a week—and I while on service he allotted '■>'■ a week to hie family. Now that, he wus inva lided he received the same rat<> of pay. although the State was no longer kee;>- ■ ing him in food. If ho had been-in a convalescent home the State would be pjyin? for h* keep, and fn long as he was wearing uniform h? maintained that his Mite or himself should he allowed the 2/ a day extra. Another mat tcr ventilated by various speakers wa* tho alleged sale of gift foodstuffs on the troopship** and in Egypt, A number declared that they had seen New Zealand Initter on . j ale in numbers of chops in Cairo and lleliopolis. and that the same applied to Kirkpatrirk J 8 jam and Uelcnsville tinned ri.">h. Furthermore, it was Jjnown that £2000 worth of stores were missing during the st-ven days after the camp at Zeitun wu established. It was aUn stated by one of the men that though he had been in two Kgyp tian hospitals he had received no gifts whatever. The object of the dieciisfiion. it wte stated, was to aeeure, if possible, that further leakage of the kind should be stopped. Several of the men present' complained that they were having grfat difficulty in getting arrears of pay due to them. On on average, they calculated that the country o«e.i them about £."50 a head, while for the mont part they had received .about £5 in addition to the JuS given them on la-mlinj a: Wellington Many of them said that they hud been unable to obtain deferred pay due to them as a result of the raising of private's pay from 4/ to .v a day, and also to the recent jrrant of 1/ a day extra to married men. One soldier proilueed a letter from the authorities stating that an assignment order made by him, directing that a portion of his pay be banked, had not been acted upon, and ! that a voucher for the money due ( JC.Vi "odd) wae enclosed. "I've spent £8 waiting for that," said the miin. "I'd have iad it a.-, goon ,i» I jot here if they had carried out my instructions." Yet another man related that one in Valid known to him had slept one night in the Domain, sjid another night on the Hobson wharf, rather than ask charity of the Patriotic Committee until his pay ehoiild arrive. It wu decided to hold another meet Sng in a day or two for the purpoee of appointing a small deputation to wait on the Officer Commanding the Uietrict ((Colonel Hume).