BURIAL OF RETURNED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 225, 19 June 1929, Page 6

BURIAL OF RETURNED SOLDIERS

STATEMENTS DENIED Dominion Special Service. Masterton, June 18. Reference to a statement by the Minister of Defence (Hon. T. M. Wilford) denying statements alleged to have been made that returned soldiers in some cases were buried as paupers, was made at the annual meeting of the Wairarapa Returned Soldiers’ Association to-night by the secretary (Mr. A. E- Prentice). “I want to say this—no returned soldier in this district has been allowed to go to his grave as a pauper. That is one thing the R.S.A. sees to, and always will see to,” he said. There had been 27 burials of returned men in Masterton, none of which had been that of the pauper. Soon after the armistice was declared equitable arrangements had been made with the Masterton Borough Council to set aside a plot of ground in the cemetery for the burial of returned soldiers of the district. Recently the Borough Council had asked the association to forgo its claim on the plot. but this request had been refused, and to-day the plot was filled. Another plot for thirty men had been set aside. It would be a shocking thing to think that any man who had seen war service was ■ allowed to go to the grave as a pauper, Mr. Prentice said, and it had never been known m the Wairarapa. As soon as a returned soldier died, arrangements were made by the Latriotie Society, with regard to funeral expenses, and it was discovered whether the man had any relatives in the district, and if so the matter was handed over to them. If no relatives could be found the Patriotic Society attended to all matters and particulars were forwarded to toe Pensions Department, which usually refunded all the costs. Every effort was also made to discover the next-of-kin, and notifications of death were forwarded to them. Acknowledgments of these notifications had been received from as far afield as Scotland and Buenos Aires. Mr. Prentice stressed the point that the attitude of the Pensions Department and other departments concerned .had always been not only courteous but also sympathetic.