RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10106, 13 October 1917, Page 6

RETURNED SOLDIERS ' ASSOCIATION.

WANTS SATISFACTION FLOW , PATRIOTIC SOCIETY. The controversy ■ which has been going on for-some months between the Ueturned Soldiers’ Association and the Patriotic Soeielv gave rise to further discussion at yesterday's meeting of the Society. fne Society, lias arranged a social for returned men on Monday evening, and applied to the Association for a list oi vcti:mcu sol diets (or tlio purpose of issuing invitations. . T'he reply to tills .application was.read, the meeting, and stated that after consul- j eraiion,.it declined to give the information; asked for until such time as the Association received satisfaction to their request regarding a . .statement made by a member oi the Society at a public meeting m Palmerston ill reference to drunkenness among returned soldiers. The'ciiairintni (Mr ,1. A. Nash) said the Society had merely asked for the list ol names', the .suggestion living made at the request- of one of the returned soldiers. If the Associatipii would not supply the infovniniion, then the Society would do without it- 1 . , . , , , Mi- I! Mavcock said n would be remwnls red that it was Mr Cohen who had asked if j he. speaker could supply the number of returned men like'y to be present, bur. ho-sa id lie could , imt do s<\ and he find said it was not fair to ask linn as he Was Hot a member of .’the executive. lias motion at that meeting had been lost. The TTiainnau: Did you not say that certain returned men should be omitted ' Mr Jlavcock: X. N The speaker said it was must unfortunaie that the SoenHy had taken up the stand it had. H the Society would say that it regretted that one o its-members had abused certain confidential information by using it at a public meeting he fell sure that such a resolution, u sent to the Association, would settle r.ie whole trouble. 1? H were clone now. he thought the trouble would bo avoided regarding; Monday’s social, and tlm men would turn out. He moved to tins eite. t. and said that to-a eertatm extent the men were justified in tin* altitude they had taken up. ~ . . , ~ The oh.airman said m the hist place tlu Association had asked for certain figures which the Society had declined to give, fho .Association replied now .that they dceluiedto give information the Society asked for. . r . Mr Haycock : They ask for information concerning a stat-amat used on a public nlatfof-m. , ii it,. ‘ Mr ,3. H. Steveus: It was aosolutelv correct.* Air Llavcock: It was not. The chairman : The statement made was

not co.rm-i. Mr K. H. (Vabb: 1 was n( the mot-ting. The. statement was that 75 per mu of the men applying for assistance at the Patriotic Office were under the influence of liuilor at the lime. Mr Haycock: Almost every man who has come'back has received sonic assistance irein the Society by the grant for clothes and other ways. Do these eonie under that "5 per cent .' ■Mr Bt evens : No. Mr Haycock: But thev do. II ilia, is not so let the Patriotic Society make that perfectly clear. Mr Haycock repeated that if‘the Society would express regret and admit that information had been improperly used, the matter could be amicably settled. ‘ . -in Mr J IS 1. Johnston said it was evidently ■ ssumed that every returned man who got a grant for £5 was included in that 75 per emit who were said to be under the influence- of drink when they called at the Patriotic Society's office. That statement, said Mi- Johnston, was ill-judged and, illadvised and should have been explained when made' and that it applied to special men and had nothing to do with the men who gel the grant for clothes, and the Patriotic Society should say so. Ihe men complained of were in a very smml minoriiv, mid it was not fair to the m:i----j,.! it v. ' ll was not fair or honest, and ‘ii avtoiuc to n.s.o information licly that Mils confidential. He thought a record should Re kept at the Patnoiu: office of tin; "men who called there. Mr (,'ra.bb said he did not. want any pia-enMo llodder. He Pod said ill it 75' per cent of the men applying for relief were under the mfluomm oi liquor, and lie (Mr ('rabid did not think that, u misstatement oi the ease. I be statement made was never intended to apply t-o men who -had received the grant of clothes Mr Drill)b went on to say that no one had the welfare of the returned men more a* heaVt .than Mr llodder, v.hen Mi Havcock rose to a point of order, and Slid tint meeting was Mr Hodtlor’s statement. not Mr Dodders personAL C'.rabb continued that strong drink wit;-, the greatest evil tile ret limed soldiers hod to with,. IP-v M Asplund asked how tlw matter concerned the Society, He understood Mr

!iodder made the. statement as a ciu/.en. jiot as u member of l!i>‘ boeietv. Tie-- chairman said that Air Stevens asked fur a report for presentation to the 1-di-,-,,-ncy P-olird. Tim Patriotic Society authorised it, but the report was: not inTended to be made public. 'I heretor.e the Society-was eoneevned.. Mr 1). Pringle said lie would second -Mr ■ . . 1 1 1 I « fl-rtl >l,l \ \l\

Haycock's motion, and Imped it would w carrii'd. . It seemed that the whole of the returned soldier's were blamed if one .rot. drunk. After what the men had gone through, lm did not blame them if thev had a drink. The meeting should pass the resolution, and wipe the whole matter oil tiie 'slate. Air Stevens said that some poisons on the Rot unit’d Soldiers’ Association hud misled the other member-, regarding the £5 .-rant; for clothes. He had spoxen to Colonel ■ McDonald, who contended that the grant was charity. It was no such thing, .-aid Mr Stevens. lh‘ : Wit *u 0 ,-no or two of the returned soldiers executive were misrepresenting the ma’-lm’. Mr Johnston eonsuloml (.oloiu‘l iilil was - iTupcusibh* for the whoio thinp, as ho was chairman of the Association Air Johnston moved an amendment : Unit the remarks made by a member of tho Society regarding the men applying lor relief " had nothing to do with the men applying for the £5 bonus granted by the Soviet'T and the Society regret dial there had been any misuiulerstauding. This was seconded by Mr Asplancl. The chairman said that t-no £o was merely a gift from the Society. Air Haycock contended that Mr J-’h".-Koii’s amendmcnl whs only quibbling witti, and wo.ihl aggravate, the matter Oa being put, the. amendmcnl was ( ui lied.