RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 26 May 1917, Page 8

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

DUNEDIN CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. DUNEDIN, May 26. The Returned Soldiers' Association Conference passed a resolution that a Minister for Returned Soldiers should be appointed forthwith to deal with matters generally concerning men back from the front. It was pointed out that probably 100,000 men would return at the close of the war, and would require settling on land or in some civil capacity, and a special department should be created so that the men should not be left to drift and become a burden on itheir parents and relations. The State should begin now to devise a scheme and not wait until the men were here. It was stated that if something were not done to attract men back, they would probably drift to Canada and Australia, where inducements were being offered for settlement. A discussion took place upon employment of aliens, ana a resolution was passed requesting the Government to conscript all aliens' labor for State purposes and pay wages on the basis of !the pay of privates in the Expeditionary Force.