RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 8

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

DISABLED MEN'S CONDITION.

(To the Editor.)

I will be glad if you will permit me on behalf of hundreds, indeed thousands, of disabled New Zealand soldiers to express some comment on the remarks of the Dominion president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, made by him at a luncheon the other day. For some little time Mr. Perry has been at considerable pains to stress the prestige of the N.Z.R.S.A. No one denies him his right to do this; nor do I intend or wish to disparage that association in any way. But I must point out that there is in this country a large number of men who are in a most unhappy position. These men and their families are struggling along in what can only be described as a disgraceful condition, endeavouring to exist on a pittance of pension, depending on bits and pieces of relief, grocery orders for small amounts, castoff clothing and other things which strike at the very heart of their feeling and dignity. It if not a question of cringing to any Government, but rather a neeu to place f anklv, fairly and fearlessly before the Government the true and tragic position of these men and their families. The need to <Jo this is great for two main reasons: (1) The right of these men to a reasonable standard of life, not as a reward for so-called patriotic services, but as a deserved compensation for loss of physical and mental functions as to the result, directlv or indirectly, of war service. (2) The depressing and discouraging effect the position of these old soldiers' of the last war has on the potential soldier of to-day or to-morrow, -who sees around him on every hand tragic examples of a country's gratitude to those who fight to preserve democracy. These things should not be. The country as such may have a right to call upon its citizens to defend it, as, indeed, I think it has, but let me say this: No country can hope to go on doing this indefinitely unless some greater consideration is shown the men who fight in defence of it. No one knows more than the disabled returned soldier the cost of war. No one more than he realises how great the need for defence,, how urgent this is; but in fairness to our families and our own sons—the potential soldier of to-day and to-morrow—we ask that a wider and much more humane outlook be brought into being, for a virile democracy does not depend on dead men but on the fathers and children of the living. W. A. CLINTON.