CANTEEN FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 225, 11 June 1923, Page 6

CANTEEN FUNDS

SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ACCUMULATE UNTIL CAPITAL REACHES £200,000 RETURNED SOLDIERS’ RESOLUTIONS BI TELEGBAI’H.—PRESS ASSOCIATION. Auckland, June 10. The New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association Conference to-day adopted the report of the Canteen and War Funds Committee that the conference is of the fixed opinion that the present corpus of the canteen fund, which now aggregates £156,000, should be conserved ; and, further, that the fune should be allowed to accumulate at compound interest until it reaches £200,000. for the following reasons: — (1) That there are sufficient souices of relief to meet current needs, and if the fund is made available now there is some danger of the Government and the trustees of the war relief funds shirking their immediate responsibilities. (2) That public opinion is still a factor in determining the action of the Government and the various bodies which dispense relief. (3) That if any portion of the .fund were made available now it would tend to create the desire to participate in the final dispersal of the aggregate sum.

(4) (a) That a study of conditions during the aftermaths of previous wars shows a gradual but steady decline in public sympathy and interest in sufferers in such wars., (b) There never has been a war in history in which as a consequence sufferers are likely to experience a greater measure of disability in their declining years, seeing their systems have been subjected to greater shock and upset, (c) That history shows that in their declining years even men who were fit and well havo not had such provision made for their care as their services to their country would warrant.

(5) That a very large percentage of New Zealand ex-service men suffering disabilities are at present capable of supplementing their pensions, whereas as they decline in years it is probable their economic capacity will decline proportionately. (6) That a body such as the Returned Soldiers’ Association must maintain a clear vision covering the future as well as a proper appreciation of the present. The committee recommended. teat the Canterbury remit be passed in the following form: — “That the Canteen and Regimental Trust Fund Board be urged to adopt as a principle of policy that the corpus of the fund be invested for a period not exceeding at most .15 years from the date of the . signing of the armistice.” In addition, the committee recommended the adoption of a Canterbury remit as follows• “That in view of the considerable interest held in the canteen funds by discharged soldiers, publicity be given to the activities of canteen funds board.”

Recommendations adopted also were the following“ That the council directs the standing sub-committee to approach the War Funds Coxincil with the object of securing financial assistance for the relief of distress among returned soldiers and dependants whose cases have not been accepted by the Defence Department, or with special reference to returned soldiers receiving treatment for tubercular diseases in civil sanatoria.” The War Funds Committee recommended that ths Government be urged to appoint, in addition to Mr. Leadley (as promised), a second representative of the association on the National War Funds Council to be nominated by the executive. The proposal was adopted.