PENSION MATTERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 6 (Supplement)

PENSION MATTERS

Need For Personal Log The advice from N.Z.B.S.A. on pension matters, and published in the "Comer," is of some benefit, but, unfortunately, not enough. Even with the assistance of E.S.A. secretaries it is difficult to prepare any cose that entirely overcomes the fundamental difficulty of obtaining acceptable evidence of front-line experience. With even a much better will than the best they are credited with, pension boards and medical advisers are beset with the need of some full and accurate record of the applicant's war-time history. Vet they have at their disposal such scanty records as may exist. These' are not available for- inspection by the soldier, being "confidential to the Department." While this position remains it ;s hard to see how even the R.S.A. can maKe a ease out ot nothing, for, on experience, it appears that evidence from comrades does not cut much ice with the boards, though it may result, at times, in the "benefit of the doubt" we hear so much of being given the pension applicant. So, what? I would take this opportunity of supporting the suggestion so ably put forward in a previous article "Apres la Guerre," that is, the keeping of a day to day log of all incidents connected with the serving soldier. If this were done for our soldiers in this war there is every reason to believe that much fairer treatment of disabled men would be possible, especially in the case of the so-called "burnt-out" soldier, who, often, is more likely to be a sufferer from some cau*c "directly attributable" to active service conditions or experience. It is to be hoped this matter will receive the attention it deserves at the forthcoming annual conference of N.Z. R.S.A. Wo cannot allow the "young men of to-day to come back to the old set of difficulties without raising some sustained protest that will bring results—not promises. WAR PENSIONER.