RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 186, 6 August 1918, Page 4

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

; • —-t» i ALLEGED ; AMPERtNG. . DENIED BY THE MAYOR. * Reference was made by the Mayor (Mr i J. H. Gunson) to-day to a paragraph in , ! the report of the Defence Expenditure , ] Commission, which stated, inter alia, | A '■ that some men, encouraged by the adu- j i ' lation accorded them on their return , ( ' from the war by an appreciative public, | I come to think that, having been at the , '■ front, the country should keep them and | - their families for the rest of their lives." : Mr. Gunson stated that, so far as the 1 i Patriotic Association was concerned, con- ' ditions in Auckland were not at all re- i presented 'by the reference in the report of the Commission. The Association had always taken a practical view, and had found that for the most part the | returned soldiers took the same view. In Auckland there had never been any such thing as too much so-called kindness or pampering. In the first place ' the Patriotic Association did not pro- j ceed on those lines, and in the second j i place the returned soldiers would, not j 1 appreciate it if they did. They had, ! found, of course, in the administration ot j such a big interest as the Association,! dealing as it did with thousands of sol- ; J diers, that from the civilian standpoint j there were a few unsatisfactory cases of I men who would impose upon the generosity of the public. These, however, were very few and far between, and did ! j not represent in any sense whatever any trait of tho returned soldiers as a whole. The experience of the Claims Boards, two of which sat bi-weekly, had been such as to lead to frequent comment upon the very fine stamp of returned soldier applying for assistance, and to whom the committees had had the utmost pleasure, on behalf of the public, of affording assistance at a time when it was most needed. The disposition on the part of most of the men was a thoroughly manly one, namely, to find suitable employment as soon as possible, and the public must not judge by a few isolated cases -which from time to time came under their notice to the contrary. Personally, his experience with the Patriotic Association during the past three and a-half years had confirmed the views expressed above, which all along had represented the views of those most strongly associated with patriotic interests here. In his opinion, therefore, the reference in the report of the Commission to this phase of the returned soldiers was not justified. As a case in point, at the meeting of the Claims Board this morning, over which he presided, out of 19 cases before the Board 15 were granted assistance, and in two cases only was further assistance declined. In one of these it was felt that the soldier was well able now to take a position, and there was therefore no need* of further assistance. In the other' case, unfortunately, the assistance I would not have been well advised owing to the ■weakness of the applicant. The remaining two were deferred pending inquiries as to their family conditions. This was typical of the whole position, and went to prove still further that the remarks of the Commission, if applied to returned soldiers as a whole, were quite unjustified. i