WAR RELIEF FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 53, 31 August 1934, Page 13

WAR RELIEF FUNDS

TWO CRITICAL LETTERS

STATEMENTS RESENTED

Strong- objection to tho tone of two letters criticising the activity of the war relief organisations was made by Mr. A. Macintosh at a meeting of the .executive of the Wellington War Relief Association yesterday. Mr. Macintosh described the statements made as "insulting, wholly unjust, and inaccurate," and said they were being spitefully disseminated. They were calculated to do a great deal of harm through being accepted by the credulous as facts. KEFERENCE TO SALARIES. One of the letters, which was addressed to the National War Council Board, contained the following passages:— "Is it fair that those who live on a good salary from the administering of the fund "should be so stringent to those who are in poverty? The members of the board receive good salaries. There are many girls living on salaries paid for out of the funds, while hundreds of returned men are starving on a mere pittance given by the Unemployment Board. If the funds are to be preserved so as those in authority can continue to live sumptuously and many girls and other clerks who are not returned men may benefit, then the time is opportune for some move.m the matter. I have carefully studied the . situation and I am of the belief that the costs of administration can bo lowered by half by cutting out the big salaries. "If paid Patriotic Board members beeomo so apathetic in the .administration of war •■funds..'as"to corisiaer desr tit'ue' members pf t the. New, Zealan.d. overseas .'forces..to be putsi.de-the .pale : of-'human- consideration,/-then;, it;-is*a ■ cttoie against .the laws- of mutual, recognition. ■'■■ It is my intention .to contest mv right for assistance:'.from-the-funds ' If my right of assistance is then declined I will in all sincerity surrender my war medals to the GovernorGeneral by way of protest." "ALLOWED TO STARVE." Remarks of another correspondent «I*am in receipt of, your letter o£ July 16 advising me your benevolent committee is absolutely indifferent to our appeal for assistance foi' enough food to keep us from starvation this week. I am keeping the chUd lirbecl away from school until I can get-iooa. You have made no real effort to help mo to get work, and in fact you have plainly shown'you are not interested. If this is the way you treat the majority of soldiers, I think it's time the whole routine under whicr you are administering the funds was revised, and I may- say this view is held by thousands of other people When you deliberately let, women and children starve, and know they are starving, and fail to take the least bit of notice, well, in my opinion it's an insult to common decency and decorum, _ and 1 for one will expose your decisions an every .conceivable direction. GBATTJITOTIS SEBVIOE. In reference to the letters Mr. Macintosh said that since the inception of the funds in 1915, when they were raised primarily for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers, all patriotic societies operating in the Dominion had been under the control of men who had CTiven their service gratuitously, often, at great personal inconvenience and cost to themselves. In tho larger > centres many, business and professional men had attended meetings of committees daily for nearly twenty years, and it was insufferable that they should be maligned in such a manner. Mr. G. Mitchell remarked that the type of applicant revealed in the letters was the exception rather than the rule. Ho thought that the citizens • realised the real position, as also did the real soldier. . i It was reported that, according to the records of the association, the writer of" the first letter had been abroad only about a year,, had seen no active service, and had repeatedly been_ in trouble with the military and civic authorities. He had received about £20 from the association. The second man had received £102 from New Zealand war funds, including £50 jn loans which had had to. .ho^written off as irrecoverablo.