WAR SUFFERERS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1929, Page 9

WAR SUFFERERS

INQUIRY INTO POSITION

CLAIMS FOR VETERANS

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

: AUCKLAND, 12th November. The tribunal appointed by the Government to inquire into the position of disabled or partly-disabled ex-soldiers commenced its Auckland sittings today. Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., presided. It decided to call itself the Returned Soldiers' Rehabilitation Commission. Captain James Stiehbury, commander and secretary of the King's Empire Veterans' Association in Auckland, put forward a claim on behalf of the survivors of the old Armed Constabulary Forces and military pensioners. The latter received now a pension of £4 Is 8d a month, which he suggested should be brought up to £5. Armed Constabulary men received only the old-age pension, and it was urged they should be treated in the same way as military pensioners in recognition of their services, in the Maori wars. Their number in the Auckland district he estimated at forty or fifty.

.Major T. P. Halpin, president of the Auckland branch of the South African . Veterans' Association, claimed that men who served in South' Africa had been treated less liberally than either Maori war veterans or those who served in the Great War. The association asked that the South African pension should be granted on the same basis as in the case of Maori -war soldiers; that the pension should be given before the age of 65, where there was disability not necessarily war disability; that financial assistance should be given to them as workers or as settlers on the lines of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlemqnt Act; ana that an economic pension should be granted to those who by reason of slight disability could undertake only casual or light work. He suggested that "employment should be provided lor veterans on the railways and tramways, and by racing clubs and sporting bodies. The probable number of survivors of the South African Forces in the Dominion he estimated at 4000. KEPLIES TO QUESTIONNAIRE. A. comprehensive statement prepared by the committee of the Auckland Re-, turned Soldiers' Association was submitted by Major-General Sir George Eichardson, chairman of the committee. This referred •to the serious problem of devising some means of absorbing nearly four hundred unemployed partly disabled ex-service men in this district. There were very few cases of partly disabled men who were absolutely unemployable. About 95 per cent. could, be employed in some capacity, and the committee considered the majority could be usefully absorbed in light public service jobs. As a result of answers to a questionnaire received from 1265 ex-soldiers, it was found that 1090 expressed preference for a.pension scheme as distinguished .from any institution for aged and indigent ex-ser-vice men, and 178 desired the establishment of an institution. UNFIT FOR HEAVY LABOUK. As to "fit men," the committee stated that numbers of ex-service men who, partly from their age and partly owing to their war service,'were to-day unemployed, and being unable to perform heavy labour could not be placed by the Labour Department. These cases were deserving of help, and in any scheme that might be devised they should be considered. Organisations 5n England, notably Corps of Commissioners, primarily formed to provide employment for disabled men only, had subsequently extended their scope to include men' past middle age "and of good character." "The "committee then gave an outline of a scheme for the formation of an ex-service friends' association, to be constituted on the lines' of: the Corps of . Commissioners m Great Britain, and to bo controlled by a board of governors giving their services voluntarily, who would arlange employment for members. An agreement setting forth the conditions of employment, etc., would be signed by both employer and man. Wages would be settled according to the nature of the work. A special nniform would be worn by men holding certain positions, such as caretakers, messengers, and other than office duties. The corps would be a civil institution, with a semi-military organisation.

Eegarding canteen funds, amounting approximately to £200,000; the committee considered that their corpus should be maintained at the present sum, and that all interest for the next ten years at least should be allocated proportionately to the various returned soldiers' associations for the assistance of necessitous cases, and other methods of relief.

Mr. Barton described the statement as an exceedingly valuable contribution to the commission 'a investigation.

The commission adjourned until to monow.