WAR VETERANS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 253, 23 September 1935, Page 6

WAR VETERANS.

Recognition of the fact that there are men in all parts of the Dominion suffering from the strain of their war service is contained in the War Veterans Allowance Bill now before Parliament- Many of these men returned in apparently good health, but time has proved that the war has left its etfects on their constitution in a manner not at first apprehended. Others wdio were wounded and recovered are now showing the effects of their gruelling experiences in battle. iSome of these returned men have become prematurely aged; others are finding it increasingly difficult to continue in work. They suffer from disabilities now' which the war pensions legislation does not cover. The ExSoldiers’ Rehabilitation Commission, of which Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., was chairman, reported five years ago that the period had been reached “when latent results of war service are becoming apparent in varying degrees of impaired health.” in pointing out that when the members of the Expeditionary Force left the Dominion they were physically the best men in the community, the Commission expressed tne view that it at the present time they show at least as much tendency to ill-health as those who did not serve, “there is a prima facie case for the submission that their tendency to ill-health is due to war service.” The “burned out” soldier as these men are now commonly referred to is deserving of the special legislation which has been wddely commended. The Bill provides for the payment of allowances to men who satisfy the War Pensions Board that they are “permanently unemployable by reason of physical or mental disability.” In the past the difficulty of returned soldiers has been to solve the problem of attributability, which has become increasingly harder with the passing of the years. Nowq under the Bill, the Board wdll be directed that if a returned soldier is disabled his disability is attributable to the war service; its major task will be to decide whether he is employable or not,, and in this connection every genuine case w'ill undoubtedly receive full justice. The widening of the pensions scheme for returned soldiers will have the sympathy of the country.