A WAR RELIEF DIFFICULTY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 49, 26 August 1921, Page 7

A WAR RELIEF DIFFICULTY

NO COHESION IN OVERSEAS

BODIES

THE VIEWS OF THE WELLINGTON ASSOCIATION.

As early'as "October, 1919, the Applications Committee of the War Relief Association foresaw difficulty and trouble ahead in the fact that there was ■little cohesion between the offices of'the Overseas Settlements Committee, the. King's Fund, and the War Office, London^ regarding the conditions under which assisted or free passages were being'granted to ex-Imperiaf soldiers coming to the Dominion, and correspondence was then addressed to Sir James Allen, just prior to his leaving New Zealand to take up the office of High Commissioner in "London, and also to the Prims Minister. The, matter was again referred to in the report made by the committee.to yesterday's meeting of the War. Relief Association in the following statement :—

"It is _ somewhat disturbing to find olaims still being' submitted to you by ex-Imperial men in such a physical condition, that were employment .offered, them they could not avail-themselves of it. In your (the association's) correspondence it'was suggested by you that no person unlikely to become absorbed into the commercial and agricultural 'life of the Dominion should be sent to NewZealand, by the bodies mentioned, yet you have received letters from.discharg- . ed Imperial soldiers who cannot obtain / employment here as makers of dolls' eyes, etc. Other applications 'are coming to hand, by letter, from ex-imperial eoidiers in hospital here, applying for equalisation of their Imperial pensions with those—usually about "three times as great—being received by New Zealand soldiers whilst inmates of the same hospital. ' . , '

_ "It has to be admitted that consideration has been given to one of the suggestions embodied in your correspondence .referred to :

(a) Hi at the organisations by, whom these passages are provided, acting through' you <vs their agents,

(b) The Immigration Department hero, operating in a similar way, o;'

(c) The Immigration Department, acting as a NeivZea-uind Government Department, should assist ex-Imperial service men, who may reach the Dominion with exhausted financial resources ;

for, provided those concerned completed, their journey subsequent to Ist January, 1921 they are disable to receive frnm, the Immigration Department, but this applies to those who have received fuse or assisted passages, whilst'the others, who have displayed sufficient thrift arid initiative to pay the cost of their own ■passages, are left—apart from j'ourselvoa 1 —to their own resources upon:,iirriva !«*.<..

"Many claims have been lodged" wiflV you by.men who have received assistance from the Immigration Department;, they-;' have been found employment, or helped in other ways, bnt a second claim from' them to the Denartment^mentioned does not seem to be tenable, and they therefore approach you.. In some of, theso oaser, further assistance is certainly unmerited, but particularly in the case of a man whr> has been brought out hera. under that Department's assisted seh-eme.-ITis "guarantors respect-mo; housing ac- ' commmlation mid' employment .haying' more or less failed both him and the Department mentioned 1, youv conimitteo ' does not consider it equitable that he should become a charge upon your funds, for—although your constitution give* you power, to assist any unit of any of the ' Allied armies—your committee holds tint' the primary intention of the donors .of' 1 your funds was. in benefit disabled soldiots, y.rid those'who suffer a breakdown in health as the result of a previously unmani feted war di«abilitv. contingent unon service with the N.7.E.F., and to-j alleviate the resultant hardships inflicted upon their-dependents.

"The point is emphasised by the fact that, in proportion to your* available financial resources, yoitr liability to these men if. very much heavier than that of any other war relief association within . the Dominion, whilst it. i« indisputable that many applications will be lodged'by them during the years to come. The position, therefore, is considered so important that it was recently brought before the Minister !of Internal Affairs by a conference with your executive ' committee; subsequently a special meet, : -. in? of your committee wa.a held on the 18th instant to rounder tho Minister's» reply; and further consideration .was. l . (riven to the matter "at the meeting of the Advisory Board of the Federated War Relief Societies of the Dominion on Tuesday,'l6th August. 1921, when a resolution hearing urJon the liability of New Zealand irar relief societies in regard to Imperial soldiers was carried/'.

The committee has arranged an interview with the Minister for this after*

noon,