Major Issues For N.Z. R.S.A. Conference

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1949, Page 4

Major Issues For N.Z. R.S.A. Conference

AUCKLAND, This Day (0.C.).— The provision of adequate armed forces for the Dominion was among the topics with which the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association would be concerned at its Doimnion conference next month, said the president, MajorGeneral Sir Howard Kippenberger, in an interview. . , Others would be the question of the aamission of Communists to membership of the association, the soldiers’ land settlement scheme, soldiers’ pensions and a national war memorial. . The association had always maintained that the provision of adequate armed forces for New Zealand could be provided only by a system of compulsory service, Sir Howard said. Regarding the admission of Communists to membership of the association, he said that iast year many delegates had been uncertain about the right course, but the disclosures >f the past year had convinced everybody 'hat there was no place within the R.S.A. for people of that nersuasion. “The association is also concerned with the low progress of the land settlement scheme,” continued Sir Howard. Unless there were more radical changes m he system, it seemed inevitable that there would have to be some increase in soldiers’ pensions, said Sir Howard. “I think it is true that since the first pensions of 1915 of £2 a week for a totally disabled serviceman, every increase or adjustment has been made following representations from the R.S.A.”