WAR PENSIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 1 June 1923, Page 6

WAR PENSIONS.

STATEMENT BY DEFENCE . MINISTER. PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM WELLINGTON, Thursday. In respect to recent criticism, the Minister for Defence, Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, has issued a statement that considerable misunderstanding exists as to the working of the War Pensions Department. Ho said that medical treatment and war pensioning go together. A decision affecting one affects the other. The question to decide is the attributability of the disability to service. The decision is not made by the Director-General of (Medical Services, as stated, but by the. Pensions Board. It was not understood why the Christchurch Returned Soldiers’ Association so repeatedly endeavoured to persuade the public that questions of entitlement arc decided by the Director-General.

The Minister states that tho claims of returned soldiers have been constantly voiced, but apparently there has been no public recognition of the fact that the State also has to be considered. It would he easier and more popular to grant claims which were, constantly being pressed. Ihe purchase of popularity by tho too free granting of pensions would he extremely easy and pleasant-. The Government was anxious to deal generously with the returned soldiers, but there must be some limit- to wbai could reasonably bo expected. Iho State provision for war pensioners in the Dominion had been more liberally interpreted than in any other. The AVar Pensions Act was administered not only in the interests of the returned soldiers, but also with due regard to the interests of the Sate.