DISABLED SOLDIERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1929, Page 11

DISABLED SOLDIERS

MORE RELIEF PROPOSALS. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, December 6. The Soldiers’ Rehabilitation Commission, which at present is sitting in Wellington, to-day heard evidence by Sir A. H. Russell. He dealt with the problem of meeting the needs of the returned soldiers now in receipt of the economic pensions, or returned men who could not obtain such relief, but who, through infirmity, were unable to support* themselves. He divided such men into three classes, and suggested their establishment in what might be village settlements, similar to those set up in England, and also their establishment in small holdings, or in some private enterprise.

E. Riddle, Officer-iu-Charge of the Reparation Branch of' the State Advances Office, suggested that an improvement in the case of unemployed men could best be effected by providing each with some occupational activity* in his own home under supervision of a Vocational After-Care Officer. When it had been proved, by experience, that the subsidy scheme was inadequate to deal with the present conditions, and something more was. needed, it would then .be thought to be time enough to consider the establishment of special workshops for disabled men, farm colonies, etc. He thought a good proportion of the class of men with whom the Commission was dealing could be absorbed into the existing trades, etc., if they were employed, and trained, as subsidised workers. The Commission adjourned till Monel av.