As war veterans’ needs grow, so does Poppy Day support

Press, 30 April 1982, Page 13

As war veterans’ needs grow, so does Poppy Day support

By

GARRY ARTHUR

Old soldiers never die, but they wear out a bit — both physically and financially — as they gradually fade away. Much of the $20,000 or more . which Canterbury people gave on Poppy Day this year will help war veterans or their widows who are in financial difficulties. Thousands more will go on “comforts" for those in hospital. Not a cent — whatever the cynics may suspect - will go on “comforts" in the R.S.A. clubrooms.

Fortunately, as the need continues, the public becomes ever more generous. Last year's Poppy Day sales brought in a record $21,500 for Canterbury. This year’s tally will take about a month to complete, but Joe Green, the Christchurch RB.A.’s manager, expects just as much this time.

“We were astounded when we started opening the tins on Friday,” he says. “You wouldn’t believe the number of notes, even $2O notes, in some of them."

Young people and females

of all ages responded best to the rattle of the collection box. The young also turned out in good numbers at dawn services on Anzac Day — a fact which warmed the old soldiers’ hearts.

The R.S.A. depends on Poppy Day for all its welfare work. “Without it we’d be in the cart,” says Mr Green. Because of inflation, the R.S.A. has doubled the size of its benevolent assistance grants from the old $5O to today’s $lOO. A total of $12,594 of last year’s Canterbury Poppy. Day collection went on grants to returned servicemen or dependants in financial difficulties.

A welfare officer calls on widows when deaths occur and the grants help bridge the gap until the Social Welfare wheels are set in motion.

The R.S.A. also provides wood and coal for widows who have trouble getting through the winter, and follows up with grocery orders at Christmas.

The R.S.A. feels a commitment to the children of re-

turned servicemen, says Joe Green, and spent $2500 of the Poppy Day collection last year on welfare grants to help fatherless children complete their education. It also helped two field scholars go to the United States and Malaysia.

Some of the annual collection goes into a reserve fund. “We’re not stuck for a bob or. two in welfare,” says Joe Green.

He notes that since the national superannuation scheme got going, there has been less demand for smaller welfare grants. People seem to be managing better. Joe Green also helps spend about $15,000 a year in Canterbury of the Patriotic Fund Board’s resources — money contributed by civilians during the war for the welfare of servicemen and their dependants. That fund still stands at $5.7 million, which is nearly

$2 million more than it held the year before. But the increase is largely illusory — it comes from the rapidlyincreasing value of land and buildings represented in the war veterans’ homes such as Rannerdale, in Christchurch. In fact, the Patriotic Fund Board's available funds are gradually being depleted. The board would like to enlarge the homes and provide more beds, but cannot afford to. It cost nearly 22 per cent more to operate the homes in 1981, while income rose by less than 20 per cent. Mr Green says that the entire patriotic fund is expected to run out by 1992. “They’ve tried to eke it out,” he adds, “and I think they've done pretty well."

The veterans’ homes are for those on war pensions because of wounds or other war-related disabilities, and they do not have to be R.S.A.

members. "We don't turn down anyone in need,” says Joe Green. There are about 90.000 R.S.A. members in New Zealand, and about an equal number of returned servicemen who are not members:

Do the veterans of two world wars feel they have been well looked after? “By and large I feel that there are not too many kicks coming," says Joe Green. “There are some who should have been on pensions for war disabilities, and they haven't been, or they have let them lapse. “Some are deteriorating now. I spend a great deal of my time organising pensions, preparing cases for the war pensions review board. If a decision goes against them they can appeal, and they are flown to Wellington for the hearing."

Heart disease and cancer are two conditions that will not be considered for war pensions, but many other medical conditions are. As long as the veteran's doctor says the condition could be

attributed to war service, it is considered.

“A lot of hearing cases are coming up now," says Joe Green. “If a chap has been in a barrage the ear specialists can pick it up. Airmen have suffered ear damage too. through running up aircraft engines. A lot have got their ear membranes scarred."

In many cases the old war wound is beginning to play up as age begins to take its toll.

World War II men are beginning to die off. Joe Green starts every day by going through the death notices in “The Press," noting an average of one former serviceman every day — but, oddly enough, R.S.A. membership is growing. “Our membership had been declining, but now it’s started to grow," he says. “Last year it was up by 377. We think it’s because a lot of men have now got their families off their hands and want to get back with their old cobbers. I'm told that the same thing happened in 1936."