DISABLED EX-SOLDIERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1929, Page 5

DISABLED EX-SOLDIERS

SOME OF THEIR HARDSHIPS (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, October 25. . Giving evidence before the Disabled Soldiers Commission, Mr. J. M. White, secretary of th‘e Returned Soldiers Association, said that he had made a personal study of the problem. During the four and a-half years he had been secretary, he could remember having placed only three seriously-dis-abled men. Vacancies for partially-dis-abled men rarely occurred. After dealing with the employment given through Poppy Day Funds, he referred to the ex-imperial soldiers in New Zealand. A number of these were constantly breaking down in health, and they required hospital treatment. If the treatment was for war disability an application for a pension was immediately made, but the time taken in determining such applications was so long that little benefit in the way of financial assistance, at a time when it was most required, was obtainable. He referred to the beneficial influence of steady work. Economic pensioners did not desire temporary employment, as they did not profit thereby, their earnings being deducted from their pension. He urged that a change should be made in the legislation, to enable them to be employed as under-rate workers, and stated that the early termination of the activities of the Repatriation Department was responsible for a good deal of the present unemployment. He suggested workships for neurasthenic and post-hospital cases, and thought* that the Government should find half the cost of such a scheme. The case for South African veterans was presented by the Rev. D. Dutton and Dr. A. R. Falconer, who stated that a precedent had been set in granting pensions for military service to Maori War veterans. There had also been a system of land grants after that war. Probably no country had treated the ex-soldiers of the Great War so well as New Zealand, but the case of the South African veterans was in marked contrast. There had been no pension or land grants. These veterans wanted to be in a position to provide for their dependents in their old age. Up to the present they had been almost entirely neglected. Provision for veterans breaking down before they reached the age of 65 was also desired.