CORRESPONDENCE

Grey River Argus, 18 February 1932, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

AN EX-SOLDIER S CASE. (To The Editor). Sir, —Knowing as I do, that all the branches of the Returned Soldiers’ Association have funds set aside to help ex-soldiers who may be in extreme need, a provision, by the way, which is indeed admirable, I have been at a loss to understand an instance here that has just come under my notice where a very needy ex-soldier has been unable to obtain any such assistance. Making application at the proper quarter, he states, he was informed that it. would be at Hokitika that he would have to apply. Now this to me seems peculiar, in view of the fact that exsoldiers generally, even from overseas, such as those from England,-Scotland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and indeed any other part of the Empire can obtain aid from the local branch of the Association without being told to go elsewhere, whereas the man here in question is a West Coaster, a native of Inangahua, who enlisted in 1915 at Kumara, and returned to New Zealand in the year 1919 an invalid. He has for the past nine months been one of the unemployed resident in the Grey district. Last week, he says, he got in one day “on the dole,’’ but this week could get no day at all, and is in need, not only urgently of a pair of boots, but from appearances he could do with a few pairs of socks, underpants, a couple of shirts, a tie, a singlet, and a hat, not to mention a suit of clothes. This man is ready—and certainly able—to do the very hardest work, if any is offering. His certainly seems a case therefore where the local branch of the Association should not allow red tape to be the cause of extreme hardship. I hope that if, as I intend urging him, he renews his application for at least a little of the assistance he certainly needs, ’ the response may hot again be that he 'should walk to Hokitika in order to obtain any consideration, if, however, he is not to be helped, I’d like the Association to let the public know why,—l. am, etc., WEST COASTER.