CHOICE OF SACRIFICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1941, Page 8

CHOICE OF SACRIFICE

"It is a question of weighing one sacrifice against another," wrote the Minister of Finance recently in replying to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce request that a larger remittance than £20 (New Zealand) annually should be permitted for soldiers overseas. The Minister refused an immediate increase, but promised reconsideration of the position when the Public Accounts to the end of 1940 have been com piled. This is more than was conreded before, but it will not satisfy the many people who feel that the low limitation of remittances imposes a disproportionate sacrifice on the soldiers overseas who have already sacrificed far more than most people who remain at home. There are few soldiers whose service does not involve, apart from the hardships inseparable from a military life, considerable financial loss also. What young skilled tradesman, for example, could not earn with overtime payment far more than military pay and keep? Recruits from the professions and commerce are equally giving up much.

What causes most protest, however, is the fact that those who would, so far as they are able, alleviate the lot of serving relatives have bounds placed on their generosity. Many parents and wives would willingly deny themselves in order to be sure that the soldier son or husband on leave should not want for funds to make the most of his free time. To send more than £20 a year may often call for sacrifice by the relative, but it is a sacrifice made by choice. The limitation on remittances means that the Government lays down what shall be the sacrifices. People may have command of funds, but they have not freedom of choice in their use. Under sterling control the Government says for what purposes money held in New Zealand or overseas may be used overseas. Even though the range and quantity of imports to the Dominion have been drastically restricted, there are still things imported that soldiers' relatives would be glad to do without in order that the soldiers should not be denied the means of adding to their comfort and recreation. Yet under the existing system they cannot make their choice of sacrifice. The Government says £20 (New Zealand) a year (about six shillings sterling a week), and unless a "special case" can be made out, that is the limit. It illustrates how far the State "control" method extends in ordering private life.