WHEN IS A SOLDIER

Observer, Volume XXXIX, Issue 43, 28 June 1919, Page 3

WHEN IS A SOLDIER

Not a Soldier?

THE New Zealand Defence Department has virtually decided no soldiers ever existed until 1914 as far as New Zealand is concerned, and one is thinking about getting some patient Christian Scientist; to convince a man who believes ho lost a leg in South Africa in 1890 that the leg is still attached to him, and that, in fact, there was neither a South African War nor a South Africa. By a process of political reasoning, mainly devised to protect the Treasury, it may be found later on that Wellington's wars were only myths, that the Crimea didn't happen, that the Indian Mutiny is merely chimera, and the South African War a thing that happened on the movie screen.

Some men who believe they served for two or three years in South Africa still claim to have been soldiers. They say that when they returned from that war (having been paid four and five shillings a day), there were no repatriation stunts, no land, and no accuracy in payment of wages due. Patriotic Funds were most jealously guarded—so jealously indeed that many years afterwards the guardians did not know what to do with them. The soldier in those days was despatched with greater fervour and repatriated with louder eclat than is the soldier of to-day. People get used to soldiers. But the South African man was in all cases a voluntary soldier- In the great majority of cases he simply came back, and was absorbed without making a noise about himselfOne knows now that his ultimate neglect was due to the fact that he did NOT make a noise—and he unquestionably should have done so. » « «

The younger generation of soldiers, much more advanced, and deserving all that a grateful country can be forced into giving them, believe with the higher officials of the State that there were no soldiers prior to the Great War, although large numbers of men with previous war service do not agree. Ex-sol-diers of the South African War endeavoured some months ago to induce the Government to regard the S.A. man as a person who had fought for the Empire, and asked that the provisions of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, 1915, and the Amendment Act of 1917 apply to them. Mr. Massey himself replied, "The matter was given serious consideration when the legislation in question was being framed, but I regret it was not deemed advisable to give effect to the proposal. The reasons for this decision, which held good then, still apply, and in the circumstances I do not think Parliament would agree to the suggested alteration of the law."

Mr. Massey did not explain why it was not advisable to regard an ex-soldier as an ex-soldier, or give the reason for the exclusion of old hands. There is no need to enter into the relative merits of soldiers of eighteen years ago and soldiers of to-day. They are exactly the same kind of men- The deeds of the old hands, not then overshadowed by greater events, were considered admirable The greatest existing authority, after the forgotten war, said. "On the whole the New Zealanders were the best mounted troops in South Africa"—and New Zealanders have since made an imperishable name as infantry.

The New Zealand Government, umder the popular spur, has been forced to treat Great War soldiers with some generosity. It has no right to discriminate. Apart from pensions and allowances to unfit men, the whole of the scheme of help to ex-soldiers of the Great War is reproductive. It has for its object the settlement of the ex-soldier, the

development of the country, and a substantial return to the Government for having speculated in good deeds to soldiers. If it is a payable proposition for the Government to advance money for Fernleaf 1915 to buy a dwelling or to buy a farm, it is an equally paying proposition for the Government to advance money for the same purpose to Fernleaf 1900. One might go further by saying that if such advances are actuarially sound in connection with Fernleaf Senior and Fernleaf Junior, they are equally sound in the case of any other civilian.

The Government might prove as a reason for excluding the old hand from the benefits of the new Act that it pays to help Mr. 1915 and is a bad spec, in the case of Mr. 1900The public might get the view that no money given or advanced to any ex-soldier is charity. It has been paid, and is being paid, as citizen life insurance. The old hands who wish to be included under that Act, feeling that the country and themselves would gain by their inclusion, insist that it is a right that should be conceded, though tardily — that it is, in fact ? nearly twenty years overdue. It is certain that a statesman with a broad Imperial view would counsel this inclusion. It is probable that the late Mr. Seddon would not have hesitated, for he would have been unable to different tiate between soldiers who fought in one place and those who fought in another.

It would de statesmen good to remember that the South African men were badly paid, badly fed, badly pensioned, and extremely overworked on account of their suitability for the task they Ojndertook. There are many of these old soldiers to whom the extension of the Act would be a boon, but not a charity, for the Government not only proposes not to lose by this, speculation in ex-soldiers, but plans to make a large profit out of them ultimately. The old soldier merely asks to be included in a scheme which, if applied to all men, whether they had been soldiers or not, would handsomely pay the State in greater production, greater prosperity, and greater good feeling.

In the New South Wales collieries machine miners earn 50 per cent, higher wages than those who work with the pick, and the community gets' cheaper coal. The cheaper the coal the greater the consumption which counteracts to some extent the operation of the machines in displacing hand labour. When typesetting machinery was introduced into newspaper offices the old handsetters found their occupation threatened, but in a short time it was found that cheaper setting enabled bigger papers to be printed, and that the staffs of the newspapers increased in numbers rather than decreased owing to the introduction of machines, and the public received a better service. — New Plymouth "Herald."

The Bank ef New Zealand has made the enormous profit of £459,----000 for the past year. Where is this huge profit going? If it were distributed among the shareholders by way of dividends, nobody would seriously complain. But no! A sum of about £300,000 is to go to swell the Bank's reserves. A member of the struggling staff of ike Bank wants to know why increases are not made in the salaries of underpaid bank clerks. "All workers' wages have gone up, and are going up, and so is, consequently, the cost of living; and there are men in the Bank's service with families to provide for whose circumstances are desperate. A mere ten per cent, of the £300,000 carried to reserves if devoted to the increase of the salaries of lower-grade men, would completely relieve the position. Is it too much to ask? Are we not entitled to it ? Will it hurt the shareholders if we get it? Obviously not!" —Masterton "Age."