ST. DUNSTAN’S

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21545, 18 January 1932, Page 10

ST. DUNSTAN’S

ECONOMY PROGRAMME PROTECTION FOR OLD AGE. (From Our 'Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 3. Some 2000 blinded ex-service men for whom St. Dunstan’s is caring are receiving notice that the organisation will not lie able to help them in the future so liberally as in the past. Captain Sir lan Fraser, M.P., who was blinded at the age of 18, and who is chairman of St. Dunstan’s, makes known in a letter a scheme of retrenchments which have been decided upon by the Executive Council. The chief points are:— Limit to the amount of goods St. Dunetan’s will sell for men. . Cuts in children’s allowances for large families. . . No further assistance for retraining men or for surveying properties for them. Reduced visiting services. Dismissals of 25 per cent, of the clerical staff at headquarters and wage cuts for the remainder. Departments at headquarters and those at Raglan street (the St. Dunstan’s factory) to be reorganised. The work of the convalescent home at Brighton will not be affected. POLICY OUTLINED. In a statement to the Evening News Captain Fraser said: “The deliberate policy of St. Dunstan’s is to build up a fund to ensure that our blinded soldiers shall be cared for till the last of them has passed aw r ay. A guarantee that the services of St. Dunstan’s will not fail them in their old age is the best comfort we can give these men. Our actuary estimates that there will be nearly 1300 of these blinded men living in 20 years’ time, and more than 500 in 40 years. Many of them were blinded, it must be remembered, when they were betw'een 18 and 22. Obviously it will be impossible to collect large sums of money for men blinded in the Great War in 30 or 40 years’ time. “We decided that the amount we required ought to be raised by 1942. Up to a point we found we could carry on the services and put aside the amount advised by the actuary for the future. This year we shall be short of some of the money required to carry out the plan. That means that we must either modify our services now or let the men down later on. Of those alternatives we have chosen the first.

“ Judging by the reception of the scheme by the 100 men to whom I explained it at Brighton, and by the messages I have already received, that decision meets with the men’s approval. The time has come when we must safeguard the position for the future of those who have not made constant applications to the fund, but will need more help and comfort in their old age. Hard cases will come up for special consideration.”