RETURNED SOLDIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23259, 31 January 1939, Page 13

RETURNED SOLDIERS

Sir, —I will be glad if you will permit me on behalf of hundreds to express some comment on the remarks of the Dominion President or the New Zealand .Returned Soldiers' Association, the Hon, W. Perry, M.L.C., made by him at a luncheon the other day. For some little time Mr. Perry has been at considerable pains to stress che prestige of the N.Z.B.S.A. No one denies him his light to do this; nor do 1 intend or wish to disparage that Association in any way. But 1 must point out that there is in this country a large number of men who are in a most unhappy position. These men and their families are struggling along in what can only be described as a disgraceful condition; endeavouring to exist on a pittance of pension; depending on bits and pieces of relief, grocery orders for small amounts; cast off clothing a lie' ">thcr things which strike at the very at, i't of their feeling and dignity. It is not a question of cringing to any Government; hut rather a need to place franklv, fairly and fearlessly before the Government the true and tragic position of those men and their families. The need to do this is great for two main reasons: —(1) The right of these men to a reasonable standard of life, not as a reward for so-called patriotic services, but as a deserved .compensation for lons ot physical and mental functions as the result, directly or indirectly, of War service. (2) The depressing and discouraging effect the position of these old soldiers of the last war has on the potential soldier of to-dav or to-morrow; who sees around him on every hand, tragic examples of a country's gratitude to those who light to preserve democracy. These things should not he so. The country as such may have a right to call upon its citizens to defend it, as indeed I think it has, but let me say this: No country can hope to go on doing this indefinitely without some greater consideration is shown the men who fight in defence of it. No one knows more than the disabled returned soldier the cost of war. No one more than he realises how great the need for defence; how urgent this is; but in fairness to our families and our sons — the potential soldier of to-day and tomorrow —we ask that a wider and much more humane outlook be brought into being, for a virile democracy does not depend on dead men, but on the fathers and children of the living. AW A. Clinton. President, N.Z. Disabled Soldiers' Welfare Association.