DISCHARGED SOLDIERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17264, 4 September 1916, Page 4

DISCHARGED SOLDIERS.

FENDING WORK FOR THEM.

DEPARTMENTAL DIFFICULTIES,

Everything connected with tho operations of tho Discharged Soldiers' Information Department seems to be going satisfactorily, except that employer.*, especially large firms, are not giving as much activo help as they might give

This is the report of Mr J. R. Samson, officer in charge of tho Department, who is one the busiest men m Christchurch to-day. The Department relics to a great extent on the help of employers, and an urgent appeal is made to them to support tho efforts of citizens who have taken up this branch of war work. They should come forward and offer positions when vacancies occur. It is asked that preference should be given to discharged soldiers in all cases in which they can discharge the duties of the positions satisfactorily. The positions Mr Samson is seeking' generally, are those filled by messengers, lift-men, drivers and storemen, and positions which requiro light labour and simple clerical work. It is found that few soldiers wish to return to tho vocations they followed before tho war. and country work is docidedly unpopular with them. Some of them insist upon being given remunerative Government billets, which often are difficult to find, and it is not possible to create new billets. Mr Samson speaks very highly of the work done by some thirty-five citizens' committees in different centres, who are giving the Department valuable service in finding positions and placing soldiers in \ them. In tho front rank of these organisations, he says, is the Christchurch Citizens' Defence Corps, which is doing, not its " little bit," but its "big bit" in the struggle. Tho corps already has found billets for 250 men, and Mr Samson says that its services to his Department cannot] bo praised too highly. On Mr Samson's Christchurch list there are thirty-seven (soldiers who need work. Ho asks employers who have vacancies these men can fill to communicate with the Defence Corps without delay. Up to the beginning of this week the Department had 5370 on. its register. Of these, 931 had been placed in employment, 1532 had enlisted again or had returned to other military duty, or had ordinary billets to go to. 134 had left New Zealand or their addresses could not ho found. 95G did not need help, 133 had drawn sections of land, and 20/5 had not responded to repeated communications or liad failed to start work at billets found for them. There remained on the employment register 1012 men, and 439 men were not ready to go back into employment.