AUSTRALIAN FORCES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16610, 25 August 1919, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN FORCES.

PROGRESS QF REPATRIATION.

(PBOU OTTB OWN COBBESPONDmrr.) • SIDNEY, August 14. After an appalling amount of muddle and confusion, the demobilisation and repatriation of the Australian forces, are going on quickly and smoothly. The figures are now complete up to the end oi J mie, and tney sminv uuit two-tnirds of demobilisation, and auout one-will oi repatriation nas been accomplished. A local oi men were seat abroad, and 6y,outi lost their lives there, leaving 2<u,ua) to come norne again, lip to ouiie ikltn, about oi tuese men nad actuaiiy landed in Australia, and oi tnese IiJo,uUU had been discharged. Tne position now, in the niiudie of August, is that only some 60,000 men remain abroad, all tne rest are eitner home or on the water. On June 3Utii, out of the 128,000 #ho had received their discharges, noiewer than yu,ooo had applied to the JLtepatriation Department for aid in some fonn or otner. The majority simply wanted a "job," but a very large number sought either vocational training, a farm, or a grant of money wherewith to buy a business, tools of trade, furniture, or something to make easier their re-admission to civilian life. The total applications to the Department greatly exceed the total of men discharged, which is explained by the fact that many men applied for aid several times, and-soldiers' relations were also assisted.

On June 30th, before the seamen's strike had dislocated industry, only 4 per cent, of the discharged men in the Commonwealth were on- the books of the Repatriation Department as awaiting attention.. A total of 46,922 had been placed in employment, while 2674 physically broken men had been re-tramed and placed in employment, and 5209 were undergoing the same training. At that date, the Department had spent £1,200,000 on the soldiers, of wnich only £2(50,000 was on loan. Ths balance went., as a gift—mostly in making sustenance payments to tho men while . tticy were awaiting employment.