THE WAR PENSIONS TROUBLE

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 801, 5 November 1915, Page 8

THE WAR PENSIONS TROUBLE

The Need for Immediate Relief.

THE Prime Minister would, do well to recognise the fact, that the gravest dissatisfaction is rife with regard to the way in which the Pensions Board is acting in connection with, the granting of allowances to the widows, parents, and dependents of officers and men who ha,ve already been killed, at the front. Parliament never intended, when uassing the Pensions Act, that this precious Board—the public is so very full up of Boards I—should act as. a sort of Star Chamber, pestering the dependents of our dead heroes with all kinds of inquisitorial enquiries and doling out the most mean and meagre allowances.

We can assure Mr. Massey that it simply will not do to leave the matter in abeyance until Parliament reassembles. The Government can surely find some way out of the difficulty, even if it has to spend money out of "Unauthorised." There should be a minimum, and that minimum as generous as. the finances of the State will allow. Mr. Massey is, we know, very far from being a mean, mail, and it- is not his wish, we feel sure, that applications for assistance from parents and relatives of our dead soldiers should be ruthlessly turned down by the Red Tape Department. There is a very deep feeling of indignation abroad on this matter, and the sooner the cause for complaint is removed the better it will be for the credit of the Government.