WORKLESS EX-SOLDIERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 145, 22 June 1931, Page 7

WORKLESS EX-SOLDIERS

REAL NEED FOR RELIEFj MONEY IN CANTEEN FUND REASON FOR PRESENT USE NOT FOR FUTURE MONUMENT (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 21. Urging that the Canteen fund and War Relief Council funds should be opened to provide an extra day’s work 1 weekly for returned soldiers who wero at present in distress, Colonel G* Mitchell stated at a reunion of youth African Veterans on Saturday night that there were, if Wellington could taken as a standard, 8900 ex-soldiers unemployed in the Dominion. He said that 1400 men who had registered aa unemployed in Wellington wero returned soldiers, out of about 5000. Ou that basis there would be between 8000 and 10,000 returned men unemployed. “Some of them are right up against it,” declared Colonel Mitchell. “1 have working, among the men under me, n major, a man with a splendid war record, who has not a pair of boots fit to work in.” Of the money availably for future emergency, there was £224,000 in the Canteen fund and £160,000 odd in the War Relief Council funds. That made £390,000 available to the relief of future distress among returned mon. While he agreed that it was right that some of this amount should be left, he thought that tho Government should open up some of those funds to help relieve some of this acute distress.

“Is there another time in the life of a returned soldier when things will be as acute as this, and when the need of assistance will be as great as it is today?” he asked. “Should we not try| to give them one day extra per week. That would mean a little extra food and a pair of boots.” He had suggested this to tho trustees of the Canteen fund, and had written to Sir Andrew Russell for that purpose. “Let us remember that the country said that these men would be looked after. We are not playing the game,” he said. “If we do something for those W’ho are up against it, it is surely better to use some of the money to relieve their suffering now rather than to save it to build a monument for them when they, are dead. Men were continually breaking down as a result of their war injuries. Physically and mentally given out they could not take their places on re- ! lief works, but required very light work. The Disabled Soldiers’ Rehabilitation Committee did not yet function. Why should the Government not call it together? He understood that a grant would bo made by tho Canteen Board, and this, together with a grant from the Unemployment Board, would allow the Act to function.