HELPING THE EX-SERVICEMAN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 216, 12 September 1944, Page 4

HELPING THE EX-SERVICEMAN

THE Rehabilitation Act, passed long ago, was the essential basis and beginning of most endeavours on behalf of . ex-servicemen, but realisation is growing daily that the hopes and desires expressed in it can be achieved only by skilful administration. More than this, there is increasing realisation, well expressed by Mr. Harvey Turner in his address to the Rotary Club yesterday, that the task is one of such magnitude and complexity that the efforts of private organisations, as well as of the Government, are required to discharge it. A great deal has been done, and more will be done, by the Returned Services' Association, but there is room and need for other organisations as well. Mr. Turner spoke of the Services' commercial contact centre, sponsored by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, which gives promise of being an indispensably useful agency in rehabilitation in this city. The spirit which led to its formation, and has led other bodies to support' it, is an excellent one. It is an acceptance of responsibility for performing part of a task which is everybody's task. There has been criticismmuch of it deserved, and. some of it fruitful—of the Government's administration of rehabilitation, but the discovery and criticism of defects in State administration absolves nobody from the duty of doing something positive to help. The commercial contact centre will meet one type of needs. There would appear to be room for another organisation to meet the accommodation needs of returning servicemen. Unless very much greater progress is made in housing construction than is now apparent, a voluntary billeting scheme is likely to be required during the period of greatest influx of servicemen, and its organisation might well be prepared now.