The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1918. RETURNED SOLDIERS’ EMPLOYMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 17796, 29 May 1918, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1918. RETURNED SOLDIERS’ EMPLOYMENT.

Judging from reports some difficulty Ls being experienced in different parts of the dominion in finding employment for returned soldiers who have been discharged from the Expeditionary Force and wish to re-enter civilian life. Something was said at Auckland on the subject a few days ago, and there is reason to believe that locally returned soldiers do not easily find the employment for which they use looking. We are informed that the War Funds Association has a number of men on its list whom it is unable to place, and the probability is that in the other towns between Invercargill and Auckland similar conditions obtain. It is not improbable that this is only the beginning of a trouble that is likely to grow as the number of returned men increases, and Patriotic Associations and the Government will soon have to grapple with it. There is more than one reason for the position which has arisen. In nearly all branches of industry operations have been necessarily- curtailed by war conditions and business Is being carried on with smaller staffs. The number of women in clerical positions has greatly increased since the outbreak of war, and though it was clearly understood that many of these appointments were only temporary, many employers have been so satisfied with the work of their female employees that they are loth to dispense with their services. This phase of the difficulty has been specially commented upon in Auckland. But the main trouble, we think, is with the returned soldier himself. This is a matter in which it is best to be candid. No good will be achieved unless the real causes of the trouble are frankly- and courageously faced, and it is a matter of common knowledge that the experience of many employers with returned soldiers has not been such as to encourage them to give preference of employment to returned men. This is not the fault of the men, for it would be a strange thing indeed if, after the terrible experience through which most of them have passed, they were in all respects like the man who has known nothing but the normal conditions of peace. The life of the soldier must unsettle the men, while the experience of the battlefield must leave an indelible impression upon their minds. The men who have come back are those incapacitated for active service by ill health or wounds. The men whose nerves have been knocked to pieces by- shellshock or whose whole system has been disorganised by- poison gas are incapable of settling down to routine daily work in the ordinary way. No blame rests upon them, .since their condition results directly from injuries received in war. They deserve every- sympathy and assistance, but it is none the less a difficult matter to find exactly the employment which is suited for them. Or take the case of the skilled tradesman who has been w-ounded in such a way as to prevent him from resuming his trade. He is, perhaps, nearer 30 than 20 years of age, and he has to turn to some employment for which his injuries do not disable him. In middle life he has to start where most men start at the age of 14 or 15 years. That he ought to have the opportunity is clear, but how to provide the opportunity is not so obvious. A blacksmith, perhaps, is wounded in the arm or shoulder and is no longer fitted for work of the smithy. A strong man otherwise, bis injured arm puts all but the lightest physical labour beyond him, and he has no training for clerical or professional work for which his injuries are no disability. Or a man was foreman of a -gang under the Public Works Department, but shellshock or wounds have rendered him physically incapable of taking up the work again. He knows no trade and he can only seek work as a novice, though he is well into the “thirties” and has, perhaps, others dependent upon him. Then there is the larger class of returned men who have nothing much the matter with them but who simply find the regular routine of shop or office monotonous and irritating. They are not to blame either. They have been unsettled by campaigning, by living under novel and abnormal conditions. Their mental and physical state is the effect of war. They find the job in which they were quite happy before they enlisted irksome and unsatisfying. They find that they cannot stick to it continuously through working hours with the attention that was so easily at command before. They chafe under restraint, and fret at the absence of incident, movement and action. All these things make the absorption of returned soldiers into civilian employment a matter of considerable difficulty. It is the effects of the war upon the men engaged in it that have to be combatted, and while the Discharged

Soldiers’ Information Department has done veiy useful work, and has succeeded in placing a large percentage of the returned men who needed assistance, it appears now that in nearly all parts of the dominion returned soldiers are not finding it easy to obtain employment suitable for them. The problem is one that might very well be discussed by Patriotic Societies throughout the dominion, while employers who consider that they have grounds for refusing to entertain the applications of returned soldiers for employment should bear in mind that time is needed to enable men who have been one, two or three years on active service to settle down again in the groove of ordinary, uneventful civilian life.- Patience and forebearance are called for while time does its work. The returned man cannot be expected to start again where he stopped when he went into camp, as though nothing had happened in the interval. He has passed through an experience that leaves no man unaffected and few men unchanged,, and he will not be entirely himself again until the war strain has passed and custom has resumed its sway.