REHABILITATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 2

REHABILITATION

The rehabilitation of the members of the armed services is not a question into the consideration of which party policies should intrude. Nor haye they been permitted to intrude in this Dominion. There can be no political party that does not recognise the extent of the debt which the country owes to those who have accepted the burden and incurred the perils of active participation in the war against the Axis aggressors. Nor can there be any patriotic memi ber of the community who does not feel that the sacrifices which the servicemen and servicewomen have made wdll be ill requited if he is not prepared to make sacrifices on their behalf. “Nothing is too good for them” is a saying that has been made by politicians who may be supposed to be keenly conscious of the fact that the servicemen’s vote will be worth assiduous courting towards the end of next year. And there are people who are actually foolish enough to assert, or at least to imply, that the provision which New Zealand has made for the rehabilitation of the members of her forces is outstandingly generous. Our contemporary, the Auckland Star, has reasonably declared that a great disservice will be done to exservicemen in New Zealand if the fulsome praise of our Rehabilitation Act, bestowed by a recent Australian visitor, leads to false satisfaction and complacency. This visitor, Mr Bolton by name, is chairman of the New South Wales branch of the Returned Soldiers’ League, and it is fair, therefore, to assume that a great deal of weight will be attached in Australia to the terms of commendation in which he speaks of the legislation of the Dominion that affects the country’s returned soldiers. It is, he says, “ the most comprehensive and generous Rehabilitation Act in the British Commonwealth.” It would be gratifying if it could be justly said that this tribute was fully merited. But it is not at all certain that it is merited. Moreover, it is a less generous Act than it might be. The provision that is made for the settlement of ex-servicemen on the land does not offer them the enjoyment of the freehold of the property that is selected by them. Moreover, the administration of legislation may have the effect of weakening its value. The departmental element furnishes a proportion of the personnel of the Rehabilitation Board that is regarded by the R.S.A. as too large and the Government has consistently rejected the argument of the R.S.A. that the problem of re-

habilitation is so important and so big that it should engage all the attention of a Minister who is not charged with any other duties. Mr Bolton seems to have committed the error of spending in Wellington nearly all the short time he was in New Zealand, and of relying implicitly on what he was told in official quarters. If he had, as might have been expected of him, taken counsel more freely with officials of the R.S.A., he would have gained a more accurate impression than that which he has formed of the provision that is being made for our servicemen. The principle of an Act may be perfect, but there may be serious blemishes in the application of that principle.