SERVICEMEN’S GRATUITY

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24610, 5 July 1945, Page 6

SERVICEMEN’S GRATUITY

In a footnote to a letter signed “Soldier’s Wife,’’ printed yesterday, it was stated that the letter had been referred to the Minister of Finance but no comment had been received. The letter complained of the amount of gratuity allowed a home serviceman who had volunteered for active service but had subsequently been regraded and unable to *go overseas. The following reply has now been received from the Minister of Defence (the Hon. P. Jones):— “There are no doubt a number of cases resembling that quoted, where a soldier has experienced disappointment because his medical grading for military requirements has prevented him from proceeding overseas as a member of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. While bearing in mind, however, the good work which has been done by men of the Home Defence Forces, and the sacrifices which have been willingly made by their wives and families, and without in any way seeking to compare or to assess the respective values of the services rendered by home service personnel and by the men overseas, I think it must be readily admitted that the overseas soldier has had to endure so much more in actual danger, privation, hardship, and separation than he would have done had he been retained in New Zealand. His wife and family have suffered the consequent , burden of prolonged anxiety, uncertainty, and loneliness. Such factors cannot be forgotten; and I believe that the home serviceman himself, however anxious and keen he may have been to proceed overseas, will be the first to recognise them. A war gratuity is not in the nature of ordinary pay, but is something additional, a gift, or bonus, in recognition of faithful service rendered; and it may be mentioned in passing that in the war of 1914-18 no gratuity wss paid for service ; n New Zealand.”