SOLDIERS AND PRIORITY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 54, 5 March 1943, Page 2

SOLDIERS AND PRIORITY

In many quarters there is a tendency to assert that the soldier must be given priority in everything from seats in Parliament to jobs. A cor. respondent, discussing the question of Pacific bases, claims that soldiers should have a prior say in such matters. Why? It is apparently overlooked that under conscription most men of military age still out of uniform are here because of physical disability or because they have no choice, having been instructed to remain in industry. Why should these men be penalised and discriminated against, both now and after the war, simply because, through no fault of their own, they have been unable to see the firing line? Is it suggested that because a man has been a soldier he becomes, ipso facto, a better legislator, administrator, executive or worker than a man who has been forced to remain in civilian life? Admittedly, in the long run, the soldier makes greater sacrifices; he should be adequately rewarded and compensated ;for them. But to many men it is almost an equal sacrifice to be forced to stay at home when every instinct in them rebels against it. There are two sides to this priority business. T.C.