SILENT SUFFERERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21449, 24 March 1933, Page 10

SILENT SUFFERERS

PLIGHT OF EX-SOLDIERS VALUE OF HELPING HAND Tho necessity for giving a helping hand to cx-servicc men who only now are heginning to foel the effects of war strain was stressed by Lieutenant R. S. Judson, V.C., when addressing tho second annual reunion of the Western Suburbs Returned Soldiers' Association at Glen Eden last evening. There was an attendance, of over 250 members from all parts of the district. Tho president, Mr. R. W. Wise, presided. "Unfortunately for the unfit man there seems to be an impression among some of us that, as it is now so long since the war ended, all ex-service men should be back to normal and that anyone who may now ho showing signs of war strain is one of tho world's misfits," said Mr. Judson. "Such is not the case. There are many of our men in New Zealand to-day who are suffering in silence. They are trying their level best to retain their independence and self-respect, but occasionally one goes under and then he is sometimes misjudged by thoso who have been more fortunate and are in better health.

" If wo wero to experience once again just one night of heavy bombardment in a front-line trench, with poison gas and grenades coming over and an enemy counter-attack commencing, then perhaps we would more readily understand the weaknesses of brave men, who not only had one night of such experiences but weeks and sometimes months."