SOLDIERS OUT OF WORK.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15800, 15 April 1922, Page 7

SOLDIERS OUT OF WORK.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. (Per Pim? Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. A deputation of returned soldiers yesterday waited on the Prime Minister urging tiie Government to take immediate steps to .assist, those returned men who are out of employment. About 30 members of the deputation were men wh > are out of work. Other Ministers present at the interview were Messrs Coates (Minister of Public Works), Anderson (Minister of Labor), and Guthrie (Minister in charge of the Repatriation Department). The deputation was introduced by Mr G. Mitchell, M.P., who said that three classes of men were represented : (1) Crippled men ; (2) those incapable of doing other than light work; and (3) men fit for heavy work. The Prime Minister had previously received a deputation headed hv General Russell in reference to disabled men, and it was thought that these would have been placed in work by now. Unfortunately they had not all been placed, and some of them were in very bad circumstances. Colonel Mitchell urged that the Government should find emplov ment for crippled men in some of the Government departments. The City Council had been approached, but had done nothing, and the speaker did not think that it could do much. The returned men out of work were doubting the patriotism of the people when they could not find employment. About 200 returned men were out of work in Wellington at present, Sir A. Fa ire said the R.S.A. recognised that the Government had done a good deal for the returned men and had titled them back into jobs where that had been possible. Speaking of the disabled men, Mr Faire said that a certain number of single men were receiving pensions sufficient to keep the wolf from the door, and the married men were receiving pensions only sufficient to enable them to buy food. A great deal had been done by the Public .Service Commissioner in helping the returned men, ♦‘but the speaker was thinking particularly. of the Post and Telegraph Department and the Railway Department, which did not come under the Commissioner and which might be able to do something for soldiers. They did not want to displace any men, but, if it caino to a question of dismissing one person to make room for two partially disabled men, then it should he done. Idle Hon. Mr Coates said that he had communicated with the various departments under his charge, asking what proportion of men they could absorb. Mr Anderson said that an endeavor was being mado to employ as many partially incapacitated men as possible. They wanted to give the men a chance right away. The -rime (Minister reminded the deputation that the services of a great many people in the public service had been dispensed with, and an endeavor (was being made to keep the -carried men employed. There was no use in whining about the task, which was unpleasant, hut the expenditure of the country had to bo brought within its income, which m is not the easiest tiling in tho world to cl ;>. They could not turn out married men with families, even for returned soldiers. I'lio Government was doing tho best it could in tlio circumstances, and every Minister would do the best ho could to iind employment for the unemployed returned men. He had not the least doubt that something satisfactory would bo done.