THE R.S.A. AND ITS TASK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 80, 5 April 1943, Page 2

THE R.S.A. AND ITS TASK

r\NE of the few benefits derived from war is the enduring sense of comradeship among those who have fought in it. In New Zealand the Returned Services' Association, formed in 1916, reached its membership peak of 60,000 in 1921. Seven years later the total had fallen to 9000, and the opinion might well have been formed that the association had no future. But in the depression years—when many a man needed such help as could be obtained only by co-operative action— the R.S.A. revived, and to-day its membership of 1914-18 servicemen is 35,000. Considering that the last war ended more than 24 years ago, years which have taken a heavier toll of ex-servicemen than of others, the present total affords convincing evidence that the ideals for which the R.S.A. stands, and the purposes for which it works, still appeal strongly to the hearts and minds of those men to whom the Dominion has most reason to feel grateful. What of its future? Its membership of 35,000 is exclusive of 5000 ex-servicemen of this war, and the total will be swollen enormously when hostilities end. Then, almost certainly, new members will far exceed the numbers of the old. Although nobody can foretell precisely the ruling ideas with which servicemen of this war will return from abroad, their needs will be substantially the same as those to- meet which the R.S.A. was originally formed, and it is highly probable that they will be guided by the experience it has acquired. As a member of the association's Dominion executive said last night its real strength lies, first, in the fact that the majority of its members have joined it "to put something in," and, secondly, in its non-party and non-sectarian constitution. The latter has been challenged in the past, and doubtless will be again, but it is difficult to think that the R.S.A. to-day would be so strong, or even that it would exist, if it had abandoned its non-party character. Not that it has no political influence; but that influence is exerted indirectly. »In the future, if the great majority of the servicemen of this war join it, and support it solidly, no conceivable political party will lightly oppose it in its fundamental purposes. Meanwhile, before the war ends, it has impor tant work to do. Perhaps its most urgent immediate task is to bring about an improvement in the administration of the laws affecting exservicemen. In general, the laws are as good as they are wellintentioned, but, as many a returned serviceman is finding, their administration is accompanied by vexatious uncertainties and delays. By and large, the system succeeds well up to the point where the returning servicemen's needs have been ascertained, but the necessity of continually "referring to Wellington" impedes the work of supplying those needs. It appears that a very large measure of decentralisation will be essential. It should be more generally realised that the serviceman returning from this war faces more complex difficulties than were experienced after 1918. He needs a job and a house, but he also needs—and often finds acute difficulty in acquiring—everything that goes in a house. It is no simple matter to acquire, for instance, blankets. So far only a few thousand servicemen have returned, and the conditions have been favourable to their speedy reabsorption in civil life. Some day they will return in tens of thousands, and the organisation that will be needed to deal with them speedily and smoothly, and justly, must be the finest that experience and ability can devise. In this task the R.S.A. I s P- r . e "® rc^ ien J-ly equipped to advise and help, and there is no reason to think that its considered views will be ignored.