Demand for Prompt Gratuity Payment

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 267, 12 November 1945, Page 4

Demand for Prompt Gratuity Payment

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Nov. 11. An invitation to the Minister of Finance (Hou. Walter Nash) and the Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones) to attend a mass meeting of returned servicemen who wish to protest against the spreading of the war gratuity payments is contained in telegrams sent to the two Ministers by the chairman of the Auckland branch of the 2nd N.Z. E.F. Association. The telegrams follow the resolution passed at a meeting ot returned servicemen held in Auckland on October 18, demanding that the gratuity be paid in full within six months of the date of the serviceman or woman being discharged or placed on indefinite leave without pay, or in the case of permanent members of the service, within six months from the actual cessation of hostilities. The telegram addressed to Mr. Nash refers to the “ignoring” of the resolution and states that returned men everywhere consider the decision a slur upon their integrity in view of the recent lump-sum payments to civilian workers, the provision in the Budget for the total amount of the gratuity, the promised immediate increases in the Social Security benefits . and the Bank of New Zealand purchase.