GOVERNMENT’S DUTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 3

GOVERNMENT’S DUTY

RETURNED EX-PRISONERS PENSION ALLOWANCES He was sure that no one, save those who had gone through the agony of being captured by an enemy, could fully realise what prisoners of war had suffered and what effect the long confinement would have on men in years to come, both physically and mentally, said Mr J. C. Kirkness, chairman of the local Patriotic Committee, and himself a returned man of World War I, at the first ex-prisoners of war reunion, held at Oamaru on Saturday night. Those men, together with all other disabled men, deserved the most sympathetic treatment, he said. The pension allowance made to men “ burnt out through the tragedy of war was not in keeping with the allowances paid to others. After all, the man who served His country and offered his all in a time of extreme national peril was deserving of some special recognition. Mr Kirkness said. No matter which Government was in power, it was the duty of that Government to cater for all who had suffered in the service of their country. He expressed the deepest sympathy with the men who had been prisoners of war and said he felt sure that every returned serviceman thanked God if he had been spared the mental and physical agony suffered by those who had spent months, and some of them years, behind the barbed wire of an enemy prisoner-of-war camp. The prisoners of war clearly had a case, and he wished them every success when presenting it to the authorities. There was an attendance at the reunion of over 40 of the 50 ex-prisoners of war who had returned to the North Otago district. „L, _ . When proposing the toast of The Red Cross,” Mr R. Brown stressed the debt ex-prisoners owed to this organisation The following toasts were also honoured: —" The King,” " Fallen Comrades and Deceased Prisoners of War,” “ Returned Services’ Associations ” (Mr R. Bcatson— Messrs Frewan and Leonard), “Patriotic Society” (Mr K. G. Richardson—Mr J. C. Kirkness). Items were given by Messrs J. Wilson and L. Grant.