SOLDIERS AND THE STATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17333, 3 December 1919, Page 8

SOLDIERS AND THE STATE.

There is a tendency, as Mr. C. F. Bennett suggested in his address to Auckland West electors last evening, for politicians to do soldiers less than justice when they discuss repatriation policy from the party point of view. The candidate who claims that the Legislature has now fully discharged its duty to returned men is obviously placing repatriation on a very mercenary basis, but his attitude is less objectionable than that of the candidate who assumes that the soldier is hungry for concessions and will sell his vote to the highest bidder. The truth— and it is generally recognised by the public if it is sometimes forgotten in the heat of partisan controversy —is that the indebtedness of the State to the soldier is continuous and inexhaustible, and it cannot be translated into terms of money without losing its spiritual atmosphere. No soldier has attempted to enforce payment of this debt and no man worth his salt is now to be bribed by the promises of candidates. Indeed nothing is more likely to alienate the vast majority of soldiers than any suggestion that they have pressed their claims against the State, or that they have come to it hat in hand. The attitude of the soldiers has been strictly correct; that of politicians should be not less so. The debt still stands but it cannot be paid in cash. What every

man expects is an opportunity to prove himself a useful 1 citizen and sympathetic treatment from the officers of the State, employers, and the general public. Soldiers are themselves most concerned for the unfortunate in their ranks, those whose activities are limited by physical injuries, and those who appear to have drifted into the blind alleys of our industrial life. For such men soldiers claim encouragement and opportunity and they will judge the sincerity of politicians largely by the response. It .will be many years before repatriation in its widest sense is completed, and the new Parliament will have many opportunities of showing an intelligent interest in returned men.