GRATUITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 220, 16 September 1919, Page 4

GRATUITIES.

The Minister of Defence is reported to have converted Cabinet to his idea that tho gratuities to soldiers should be pa,id on a scale varying according to rank. We expected that Sir James Allen would take this line; as our correspondent says, it has the backing of military opinion and precedent, and it is one of the Minister's characteristics—both a fault and a virtue—that he is wedded to Orthodoxy in military matters, and is always guided by professional opinion. We regret the reported decision, and we hope that Parliament will show its independence and substitute a flat rate. We have little doubt that a majority of the House prefers a flat rate to a scale according to. rank, and that with a little trouble sufficient opposition to the Government's proposal could be organised to kill it. The gratuity is a, special grant given to men who have faced the grim democracy of hardship, mutilation, and death. Generally speaking, all have run the same risk, consequently the ser* vices of all should receive the same special recognition. A distinction between officer and man in this matter is undemocratic. You cannot introduce complete democracy into an army, but here is a case in which you can and should apply the democratic principle.

Speaking of gratuities, we are glad to see that officials of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association have dissociated themselves from recent regrettable occurrences in Wellington, and that the president has expressed his personal and official regret to the Prime Minister. The unruly nature of the Wellington branch's deputation to Parliament, and the offensive references to the Press at a subsequent meeting, are not calculated to enlist public sympathy on the side of the organisation, and they should be a warning to members of the association not to let the wilder spirts gain even temporary control of affairs. The association represents a body of men whose services and sacrifices no thanks and no material return would completely balance, but it has its good name to protect, and when every allowance is made, such Occurrences as those of last week tend to bring that name into disrepute.