NOT FULL STORY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 285, 1 December 1944, Page 6

NOT FULL STORY

REHABILITATION IN N.Z. REPLY TO AUSTRALIAN On the grounds that the remarks reflected unfairly on the association, exception was taken at the meeting of the Auckland R.S.A. executive last night by the president, Mr. A. P. Postlewaite, to the statement by Mr. K. McLeod Bolton, of Sydney, that many of the criticisms of the New Zealand Rehabilitation Act were from uninformed people. Mr. Postlewaite said it was regrettable that Mr. Bolton, who did not tell the full story, had not consulted the R.S.A. before he had held consultations with the Minister of Rehabilitation, and the Departmental heads in Wellington. The criticism of the R.S.A. had never been against the spirit of the legislation, but against its administration.

The R.S.A. agreed with Mr. Bolton when he said the Act was "the best in the world." The R.S.A., in fact, had been responsible for most of the Act, but a false impression had been created by Mr. Bolton that the R.S.A. was wrong in its persistent criticism. Mr. Bolton did not appear to understand that the R.S.A. was definitely a non-party organisation, and that its whole concern was to have legislation administered so that returned men would receive the most satisfactory treatment. The R.S.A. was far from being satisfied that such was the case to-day, and it was its duty to use its full power in the best interests of returned servicemen.