DISABLED SOLDIERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26177, 13 June 1946, Page 6

DISABLED SOLDIERS

GOVERNMENT’S SYMPATHY FULL PRACTICAL AID ASSURED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 12. Continued Government assistance in any practical way was promised by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr C. F. Skinner, to the Dominion conference of the Disabled Servicemen’s Reestablishment League, which opened in Wellington to-day. The president, Mr 1.. J. Goldsmith, welcoming the Minister, said the Government’s rehabilitation measures were an example to the world. Mr Skinner said the Cabinet had never refused him financial assistance for rehabilitation. “ I do not think there is any limit to which the Government will not go to get our disabled servicemen hack into worthwhile jobs," he continued. “If there is a limit I have not heard of it. There has been no change of Government policy, nor is there likely to be.” Referring to many disabled and also blinded men who are now performing highly specialised technical work in industry, Mr Skinner visualised the time when the workshops would not be utilised entirely by disabled servicemen, but also by men who had suffered injuries in industry. A new league centre would soon be established near Napier, he said, with workshops and instruction in horticulture. Commenting on the production of artificial limbs, the Minister said there had been considerable discontent in the Dominion because amputees had to wait, but experts had been sent abroad for instruction, and the position was now entirely changed. He hoped that before long artificial limbs would be provided for all who required them. This facility would also in time be available to men who lost limbs in industry.