THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1915. THE SICK AND WOUNDED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16021, 13 September 1915, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1915. THE SICK AND WOUNDED.

The return to Auckland of the local quota of the sick and wounded brought home by the Tahiti is another warning of the need for abundant preparation for the comfort of those who have been disabled in duty-doing. There is, of course, ho present straining of hospital or convalescent accommodation and no lack of funds for all desirable expenditure the men who returned to us yesterday find the various authorities fully prepared to receive them, while the War Belief Funds are ample for all immediate claims. We must face the fact, however, that we are still only at the beginning of this drafting back—sick, suffering, maimed, wounded, and recuperating— brave and self-sacrificing New Zealanders who in distant Egypt and far Gallipoli have given health and strength and limb and all but life so freely and so nobly for their country and Empire. That they return with life from where so many have given life itself, ungrudgingly and willingly, is due only to the inscrutable decree of Providence and the varied fortune of war. They offered and risked their lives, did their duty to the utmost, took the grim chances.of a desperate campaign and have come i through with honour to themselves and with credit to New Zealand. Some, fortunately, will, be able to go back to the front. Thousands will be thus returning to New Zealand. To all who return we must prove that we are worthy of their devotion and as ready to do our so much easier duty.

I There has been some suggestion! I that our people will become so j familiar with the inevitable inci- : dence of "war that they will cease I to be keenly interested in the homecoming of the wounded and the sick. This suggestion is without foundation. It is true that as the veterans of the fighting line cease to feel the first excitement of initial fighting !so a war-accustomed people ceases J to feel the 'first emotions aroused by unprecedented casualties; but the veterans remain as determined as j ever to do their duty to the end ; i and their people similarly settle down to a profound conviction that the fighting line must be kept full, that losses must be patiently en- ! dured, and that those who return shall be treated as they so worthily deserve. Those who return broken from the war will never want for friends in New Zealand or in any part of the British world, for this is a national war and few indeed are not affected by it in their innermost lives. Those who have lost and those who may lose are the great majority of our people ; to them the care of the sick and ; wounded is not merely a national j duty but a personal obligation. We have only to think of what would j happen to New Zealand and the • Empire if this monstrous German '" Kultur " triumphed to be conscious of the greatness of the cause for which our soldiers fight and of the gratitude owing by each and every one of us to those who have served that cause so heroically. That by their devoted courage these men of ours have given us and our children for ever the right to be proud when New Zealand is named among the nations adds to our sense of obligation to those of them who need our help. The Willochra men, the Tahiti men, the men whom every hospital ship brings back disabled by camp-born sickness or war-made wound, are of those by whose deeds the world rings with the fame of New Zealand and by whose help the sacred task of freeing civilisation "from Kaiserism is being slowly accomplished.

The men who returned by the Tahiti, as those who - returned by the Willochra, will find in Auckland, {as everywhere else in New Zealand, lan earnest and sincere desire to welcome them as they should be welcomed and to treat them as they should be treated. It is timely to point out, however, to the sympathetic public, that if our duty is to be done to all who will return disabled in the future and to the dependents of the men who have given their lives for their country, the Patriotic "War Relief Fund must be very greatly increased. The State is acting generously in the matter of pensions and will not shirk its responsibilities, but there are many just claims which cannot be dealt with by bureaucracy and there will be numerous cases in which it will be necessary to supplement State aid by voluntary action. This has already been demonstrated by experience. Personal consideration as well as impersonal regulations are necessary to the full discharge of the national obligation to the sick and wounded and to the dependents of those killed or petmanently disabled in the war. The War Relief Funds provide this personal consideration, and must be made financially strong so that they may stand the strain which will sooner or later be placed upon them. The aim of the Auckland organisation is to raise a quarter-of-a-million pounds sterling for this laudable purpose ; every casualty list and every returning hospital ship warns us that this amount will be note too largo for the needs of tho pro- 1 vince. I

SOLDIERS' ALLOTMENTS.

The cases quoted in to-day's Herald as typical of the work of the Soldiers' Relief Committee of the Auckland Patriotic Association show that there is every disposition not only on the part of the Relief Committee but in the Defence Department to assist all who require" help. The machinery of the Pensions Act is not yet in full working order, and even when it is there will necessarily be a space to bridge between the date of the death of a soldier and the regular payment of pensions to his dependents. It should be the business of the Gov eminent and of the Pensions Board to make this interval as short as possible. Meantime the difficulty has been partially overcome by the authority given to the Defence Department to continue the payment of soldiers' allotments for six months or until the pension is payable. This simplifies the cases of wives and children. Their title to pensions is never open to doubt, and the allotments are being paid as a matter of course. Payments of allotments to mothers or other relatives have in practice been continued only when the. Department is in possession of evidence showing that the recipients have some claim to receive* pensions. Mr. Lamer, chairman of the Relief Committee, appeals for the continuance of all allotments until each case has been investigated, but it is hardly to be expected that the Defence Department, bound as it is by the Act, can take this view. Except in the cases of wives and children, there must be evidence that the applicant for a pension was in fact to some extent dependent on the soldier, and so far as can be judged from the cases quoted today the Department is taking quite a liberal view of its responsibilities in that connection. In the first case ! cited the Department has apparently taken the report of the Auckland Relief Committee as sufficient evidence of dependency, in the second case the Department forwarded an inquiry to Auckland and again acted upon the committee's report, in the third case a soldier's wife found a lost allotment, and in the fourth the Department accepted as sufficient authority for temporary payments a letter written by a soldier to his wife expressing his desires in the matter. There is no evidence here of the red tape in whic.i Government Departments are traditionally supposed to be entangled. No doubt some hardship has been caused through soldiers' relatives not being well informed as to the course of procedure, but the remedy for this would seem to lie rathe with local committees -than with the Defence Department. The Department .is entitled. to local assistance when inquiry is necessary, anil so long as it acts on the advice given to it by responsible committees there need be little cause for complaint.