SOLDIERS' LEAVE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 251, 23 October 1944, Page 4

SOLDIERS' LEAVE

I should like to endorse "Navy Blue's" remarks concerning the ■ inequality of treatment with regard to final leave of the returning men., Amongst soldiers the Second Division from the Pacific are receiving far better treatment than the sol--' diers who returned before April 18. if This is the crucial date.. '.Those soldiers returning after that date, and V those only,'receive two days* final • leave for every month abroad. I have in mind a volunteer soldier '" who returned in early April after i three years and three months oveiV ■ seas. He has the El Alamein Star and North African ribbon; he fought in those renowned battles that put New Zealand on the map — Sidi Rezegh, the relief of Tobruk,, EI Alamein and the Mareth Line. On ' returning to his homeland he was classified C 3 on account of his war injuries and given one month's leave. Do the New Zealand taxpayers, and those subscribing to the war loans, know and approve that such miserable treatment is meted to our veterans? Would they expect these exhausted men to be fit to re- I turn to their normal work nv a. month? If every returned man who received this meagre treatment would ask his M.P. to protest to ; Mr. Jones, perhaps the Minister .*■■ might admit the unfairness of the treatment meted out to these longservice veterans of whom the Government professes to be so proud. AMAZED.NEW ZEALANDER.