ASSOCIATION TO BE FORMED

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 5, 7 January 1916, Page 8

ASSOCIATION TO BE FORMED

ITS AIMS AND OBJECTS.

About' forty returned soldiers attended the meeting convened by Capt. Don-, aid Simson this afternoon ■ for the purpose of forming a Returned Soldiers' Association. Capt. Simson presided, and explained the objects of the meeting. He proposed to form in each centre a Returned Soldiers' Association, for the purpose- of giving the men the opportunity of considering their interests as soldiers end as citizens. He .'also proposed to establish in each-centre a Returned Soldiers' Club, for men who had been to the front and Samoa. ' Committees v/ould be selected,' also caretakers, as in Invercargill,! Dunedin, and [ Christchurch, the caretakers to ■be men who had returned and were unable to fcako other employments. There would soon be thousands of returned men -.vho had no real homes. "The people are very pleased to welcome you back, but after that yon begin to pall-on-them," said Capt. Simson.: People invited them into bars to have a drink and then went about their business. ■ If a group of business men were standing at a corner and saw three soldiers .coming along they said. " Here come some soldiers with a grievance,"-and they would, separate and get out of the way.. He was not going to allow returned soldiers to become a pest by walking the streets with nothing in view, for it was going to spoil their careers as future, citizens of New. Zealand. There was not a man who had talked to more returned soldiers than he had. He had spent all his time and money in.forming an idea of the general state of things in New Zealand. .. Criticism, he added, was no good unless it. was .. pointed out to the Government some manner in' which grievances could ■be removed. There was no length .to which he was not prepared to go to remedy affairs as they at present existed. Before he left New-Zealand—and it would not be long—he_ intended to wake up the people of New.Zealand. There were-3000 returned • men in New Zealand, and if each had three relatives to back them up he would have. 12,000. people behind him. Then he, would ask. the•_■ relatives of the 30,000 men at the frpnt to support them.' • Returned soldiers, covered every, class of, the community, and there was no class and no wealth in the trenches. The result was, that they had a better .opinion. .of. each other than when they left. New Zealand. Their one object, was-to. fight the enemy and beat him. They did not stop to ask their neighbours if., they were1 woolkings,, .lawyers,- or ...waterside workers. This was bound .to have a big effect j in- the future. The effect on the temperament was bound to tell on the future of returned soldiers ■ when they went back' to civilian life. If the returned soldier was neglected and allowed to form.wrong conclusions it would prolong the time when his. humaneness and experience would take effect. The worst cry when the war broke out .was, 'Business as usual,", for 75 per cent, carried on business, while 25 per cent, were doing their best, while we were fighting nations . which - compelled ■ every man or woman to do his or her bit. ■ Twenty-five per cent, were fighting, and the other 75 per cent, were making money out .of 7. them. Seventy : five per 'cent, of the soldiers'" grievances were pinpricks, but. the other 25 were genuine and required remedying. _' The Prime Minister had said the previous evening1 at Palmerston- North that" every man and ounce jof courage would be needed. That "was all very well, but he doubted •if . the Premier himself realised what was needed. ■ . (Proceeding.) .