RIGHTS OF RETURNED SERVICEMEN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25589, 2 September 1948, Page 3

RIGHTS OF RETURNED SERVICEMEN

GENERAL KIPPENBERGER’S VIEWS Returned servicemen were not members of a privileged class, but there was a very clear right for those who were disabled in the‘war to be given assistance by the rest of the country, said Major-General ’ Sir Howard Kippenberger last evening at a social function held by the Christchurch Returned Services’ Association. Major-General Kippenberger, who is Dominion president of the association. explained the work of the Dominion executive.

“I think we are working tor that recognition, with occasional failures, with a good many frustrations, and with many apparently unaccountable and distressing delays,” he said. Another purpose of the association was to preserve the feeling of comradeship which everyone experienced in the services, he continued. Nowhere in civilian life had he been able to find the same spirit. Within the Returned Services’ Association it was possible for men to meet and completely disregard financial, political and religious differences. There had been a distressing lack of interest in the association between the two wars, he said. There was the period when not only the Government but the country generally thought it was proper that the returned soldier farmer should be bankrupt- He mentioned the case of a friend who was a farmer, and who for 18 years could take no holiday other than what he got when he went into a territorial camp each year.

“That will be the position again if returned servicemen do not ' continuously and strongly place their case before the country.” he added, “and insist on their rights—not their privileges.”