The Soldiers' Claims

NZ Truth, 7 June 1924, Page 8

The Soldiers' Claims

, "Old Soldier" writes from Auckland: I notice that the English papers rightly praise Princess Mary for erecting four cottages at a cost of nearly £2000, and allowing four soldiers, crippled for life, to live m them rent free. Now, sir, what are we doing? Spending £260,000 on a museum as a memorial, more, I think, to gratify tho vanity of the living than to honor the dead. A lusting memorial would be the erection of 260 houses for our maimed soldiers rent free, or at a nominal rent to keep them insured and m repair. It could be called Anzac Town, Massey Town, Gunson Town, or any fancy name you like: When the war was on the cry was: "Do all you can for the soldiers. when they return." What has been done? First, they were assisted to go on the land, bought, m many cases, from the people who shouted loadest, at inflated prices. "Do all the soldiers you can," they really meant. "iTho result is, ,W€ll ( . known. Very few have made a success of it. Many have become bankrupt and left their farms. Several have committed suicide. They were advanced money to buy housop arid, had, m many cases, tp go to the Magistrate's Court to obtain "possession." . Even Anzac Day means m many cases the loss of a day'g pay. That day penalises all workers; unlesr they are on at a weekly wage. The sooner we remember . that a grand tombstone m memory of a dead man is of no benefit to those he has left behind the better.