QUEER CASE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 27 September 1943, Page 4

QUEER CASE

RELIGIOUS DOCTOR

COMPLAINT BY SOLDIERS

(0.C.) SYDNEY, Sept. 21. Returned soldiers appearing before a repatriation medical officer, Dr. Saxby, had received Bibles, not pensions, Mr. J. C. Neagle said at the R.S.L. Conference. Conference decided to ask for the removal of Dr. Saxby from his position. Mr. Neagle said: "Returned soldiers going to Dr. Saxby for examination are told to 'bend the knee to the Almighty and all their difficulties will disappear.'" Voices: Kick him out. Mr. Neagle: We want Dr. Saxby to confine himself to medical, not religious activities. ' The R.S.L. assistant pensions officer, Mr. George Silk, said: "When I was discharged from the Second A.1.F., Dr. Saxby was almost pontifical. "He said to me, 'Well, here you are, back all in one piece. If you believed a lot more in the Lord things would not be so bad.' I replied, 'How about getting down on your knees and giving a prayer to make my leg better? , "I fear for Dr. Saxby's well-being. Sooner or later a bomb-happy Digger, upon being asked to pray instead of being given a pension, will attack him." Other delegates said that some men, to get higher pensions, simulated religious zeal. Asked to comment on the R.S.L. Conference decision, Dr. Saxby said: "I have no comment to make. It is a matter for the Repatriation Commission."