IMPAIRED BY WAR

Evening Star, Issue 20311, 21 October 1929, Page 15

IMPAIRED BY WAR

RETURNED SOLDIER PROBLEM ISphcial to xhs ‘ Star.’] CHRISTCHURCH, October 19. Nothing definite has yet been done in connection with the employment of disabled returned soldiers as part-time postmen. The Chief Postmaster at Christchurch, Mr H. P. Donald, stated to-day that he was in conference witli Mr E. F. Willqox (secretary of the Returned SoldieYs’ Association) with a view to obtaining suitable men. As soon as these were secured the service could be started. Mr Willcox told a reporter that though there were plenty of men available the association had to prove first that the men’s claims for help were genuine. There were three classes of returned men for whom the association now had to provide—first there was the prematurely aged man, the man who had come through the war without hurt but was now finding his nerves becoming ragged .and his general constitution breaking 'down ; then there were the men who were receiving economic and disability pensions. The association had to protect the interests of these men. _ Ordinarily any man receiving a pension who did any work had to report it to the authorities, and his pension was cut down accordingly. This did not affect the disability pensions, but it did affect the economic pensions, and though the men would prefer to earn the money, the association had to see that they did not lose by it. . , The effects of the hard lives the soldiers had had to live were showing themselves more and more every day. Every week new men were coming on the association’s books,_ and it was these men that the association found it hardest to care for, as it_ was difficult to prove that their disability was the result of war service.