LEAVE WITHOUT PAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 38, 16 February 1943, Page 3

LEAVE WITHOUT PAY

FOR RETURNED SOLDIERS TEMPORARY CIVILIANS FOR SLX MONTHS (P.A.) Auckland, Feb. 15. From Ministerial statements it was the belief of returned soldiers of the present war that those of grade three who had been placed upon leave without pay, would be dealt with in a definite manner—that they would be discharged or transferred to some Army unit on pay. "This,” said Mr. E. L. Thwaites. Dominion secretary of the Second N.Z.E.F. Association, “is not being done. The majority are being placed in a new grade called ‘grade three (temporarily unfit for grade two)’. They are being put on leave without pay, transferred to area pool with the information that they will be reboarded in six months. Thus the majority of the class are in almost the same plight as they were before — they are temporary civilians for at least six months without the privileges of a soldier or the advantages and scope of a civilian. It would seem that once again the intentions of the Government are being evaded by the departmental system. It is typical of the way the Civil Service, mind works to frustrate the Cabinet's intentions. “The evil of taking men off Army pay before their hospital treatment is concluded,” continued Mr. Thwaites, “has been illustrated recently in the case of a soldier whose home is in the country. The system is that after three months the soldier is discharged on leave without pay and granted a pension. This, for a single man, with economic pension, amounts to £3 14s 6d. A country man requiring treatment must come to the city to live. For the first three months he gets his soldier’s pay and he can live at the Carey Hospital for half a crown a day. Thereafter he must pay board out of his own pocket and has not servicemen’s club facilities, except that provided by the Second N.Z.E.F. Association, which has not received a penny from the Patriotic Fund. “Men in the convalescent hospital at Rotorua are given periodically a free railway pass to enable them to visit their homes, but for other leave, they must .pay full fare because they are in civilian dress. Yet, Territorial soldiers. being treated in the same hospital, may travel as often as they are able at concession rates, because they are in uniform.

“The public,” added Mr. Thwaites. "may not be aware that the soldier in hospital is permitted to draw only 10s of his pension and that the suit he has bought out of the inadequate mufti allowance of £l2 10s is quickly ruined in the case of some patients by the use of crutches and the wearing of plaster legs.”