LEAVE WITHOUT PAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 38, 15 February 1943, Page 2

LEAVE WITHOUT PAY

SOLDIERS back from the Middle East or invalided out of the army have expressed grave dissatisfaction at their treatment at the outset of their return to civilian life. The arrangements for the return to New Zealand are excellent, the hospital ships are comfortable and well equipped, the men are well treated at ports of call, and on arrival the arrangements for their reception are complete. The landing hospital is doing a first-class job, relatives are given time and opportunity to greet the sick and wounded, and the dispatch home of those who are fit for train travel is prompt and efficient. Later on, unfortunately, many of the men get the impression that their welfare is of less importance than when they were in the army. The chairman, of the Dunedin Committee of the Patriotic Council stated the case for these men very fairly and very soberly last week. He said that there were too many Departments concerned, with the result that many men became confused and dispirited,,and many of these men were not in a mental or physical condition to go from one Army Department to another, thence to the National Security Department, Social Security Department and so on, in an endeavour to find where they stood in the matter of pensions and allowances. In the period during this' peregrination, many of the men have been put on leave without pay. They are still in the army, liable to recall, but they have no pay with which to carry on, and they are neither free nor ready for a return to civilian life. It was announced by the Minister of Defence some time ago that grade 3 men would not be so treated in the future, but somebody originated a way of circumventing that announcement by classifying them as grade 3 temporarily unfit for grade 2, and sending them back on the paper chase for recognition of their claims. Mr. Fraser now states that no more men will be .placed on leave without pay, and that subterfuges of this reclassification type would no longer be permitted. In future, he says, such men, instead of unpaid leave, will have a rehabilitation allowance pending their return to civilian life. An immediate decision on the amount of payment should be made, so that there may be no more delay in providing for their immediate needs.