RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2985, 24 January 1917, Page 6

RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

The membership of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' . Association now totals ' 400, ' with twenty branches throughout the Dominion. In a report reviewing the policy and aims of the association, tho secretary states: — "The New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association is well established,' and has a policy which is simpjo in its aim, namely, the protection of all returned soldiers' interests. This policy cannot be particularly defined at the present moment, as there are so many thousands who will come back and infuse new ideas into tho association. Meanwhile tho association concerns itself with immediate needs, and allows room for. improvement as occasion arises. Nearly overy town has a club, where men gather for social intercourse, and thus perpetuate tho friendship gained in far-off lands. In the near futuro other agencies will be employed to foster enthusiasm and carry on tho brotherhood which the battlefield alone can j produce. "Each time a draft leaves for France or Egypt some Toturned soldiers are amongst its riumbers. They have sufficiently recovered to faco the foe once more. As members of tho N.Z.R.S.A., with their well-known association badge, tho.v proclaim to those who are still in the field that those who havo been knocked out are alert and preparing for them a bond of unity which will ho worthy of the Anzac tradition. "Although the association works (so to speak) in obscurity, yet it is facing problems every day. Aa time goes on it is hoped that it will bccome a national organisation in its truest sense, and hence a great national asset. The question mil not be what the people will do for the returned soldiers, but what tho returned soldiers will do for tho State and for themselves. When tho wan is over, and the men return homo once more, their experiences will stamp themselves upon the future generation, and they will he an instrument for the making of a virile na r tion:"