RELIEF FROM POPPY DAY FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 10

RELIEF FROM POPPY DAY FUNDS

Direct Payments Wanted ACTION BY RETURNED MEN AT DUNEDIN By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Maj- 18. The method under which the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association grants relief from Poppy Day funds to disabled ex-service men is likely to be reconsidered as a result of the refusal of a numbet of men engaged under the scheme to carry out work allotted to them. Tlie practice of the association lias been to place men under the supervision of the reserves department of the City Council, which obtains the benefit of any work that thej’ do. but tlie men are said to have adopted the view that they should not be required to work and that relief should be granted in the form of direct payments from the. fund. Though the president of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association (Mr. 11. L. Paterson) refused to make any statement with respect to tlie position that lias arisen, it is understood that an official of the Citj’ Corporation visited Chisholm Park at the end of last week and found that more than 20 men engaged there under tlie Poppy Day scheme were not working and that a number of them were actually sleeping. He took their names and forwarded them to the Returned Soldiers’ Association, which it is understood has terminated tlie services of the men in the meantime. Tlie matter is to be considered at a meeting of the association to-morrow night, and it is reported that on this occasion the desirability of changing the system under which relief is granted from the fund will be discussed.