THIRD EDITION

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 14, 16 July 1918, Page 8

THIRD EDITION

SECOND DIVISION LEAGUE'S CLAIMS

MINISTER'S COMMENT.

A summary of the Second Division League's annual report in The Post yesterday gave a list of improvements attributed to the executive's campaign. The matter came under the notice of the Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen), who made a brief comment to-day. "My attention," said Sir James Allen, "has been drawn to a statement' that is being published apparently broadcast by the Second Division League in its first annual report of the concessions and benefits which have been granted to soldiers and their dependents. The purpose of the publication is evidently to give the impression to the public that the whole of these concessions and benefits are solely due to the persistent agitation and pressure of the Second Division League. The method adopted by the league has been simple. The executive appears to have taken the original conditions with respect to soldiers and their dependents and compared them with those now in existence, and has assumed that the difference is entirely due to the work of the league. This assumption altogether eliminates members of Parliament individually and collectively, Ministers of the Crown individually and collectively, the press, War Relief Associations individually and collectively, the Returned Soldiers' Association, the National Efficiency Board, the administrative heads of the Defence Department, and the large army of patriotic citizens throughout the Dominion who are continually suggesting improvements for the benefit of our soldiers and their dependents.

"While I have no desire to discount the actual work that has been accomplished by the league, I do think it is necessary to point out that it has not a monopoly of initiative 1 in these matters, nor a monopoly of goodwill towards soldiers and their dependents." ,