REHABILITATION!

Evening Star, Issue 25301, 9 October 1944, Page 7

REHABILITATION!

LONG TERM ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE BATTLE AREA PRIORITIES EXPLAINED (P.A.) ~.., WELLINGTON, Oct. 8. " Rehabilitation assistance will be available for at least 10 years after the war for all ex-;servicemen and women, and no applicant whose case has to be deferred now need think his opportunity is lost," said the Minister of Rehabili. tation, Mr Skinner, to-day. There were several fields of rehabilitation as. sistance in which wartime conditions and ...shortages .made it imperative for some form of priority to be adopted in favour of the men returned from the battle areas overseas, the Minister ~ said,'but all ex-service personnel, whether from short service in the Pacific back areas, or with only home service on their records, would ultimately be eligible for all relevant forms of assistance. Overriding the priority system, however, was a provision that ail applicants were eligible now to be reinstated in conditions no less favourable than those they enjoyed before serving in the forces, no matter where or of what duration their service had been, said the Minister. Any exserviceman could .apply for assistance to regain . what he . had lost economically through his-service. If he .had had to give up his house, farm, business, or job as a result of entering the services, he was considered immediately eligible by the Rehabilitation'Board for help to regain the equivalent of,iwhat he had lost. tfc.was onlyVVheri an 'applicant desired to. obtain conditions substantially better than those which he had enjoyed before his service that the priority clauses oper•ted, "MrrSkinner said; This was only in common, fairness to those who had actually borne the brunt of the fighting and", the privations of overseas battle areas—whether in the Middle East or the Pacific—and implied nothing derogatory to those who through no fault of their own had been directed to serve in New Zealand or in overseas areas removed from the battle tone. As had been stated in the House, the. Minister concluded, there were not only the thousands of men who were etill fighting to be considered, but also the 7,000 prisoners of war still in the hands of the. Germans. Their chances -of successful rehabilitation could not be prejudiced by a too lavish expenditure of bene : fits at this stage.