REHABILITATION OF SOLDIERS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21156, 4 July 1940, Page 6

REHABILITATION OF SOLDIERS

Mr J. A. Lee’s Soldiers’ Guarantee Bill, which has been read a first time in the House of Representatives, will at least serve the purpose of bringing to a head the Government’s somewhat nebulous proposals for the rehabilitation of the soldiers when they return from the fighting fronts. While the measure is certain to receive sympathetic consideration from all members of the House, it remains to be seen whether the Government will adopt it and ensure its passage to the Statute Book. The, Government no doubt has its own ideas about the rehabilitation of soldiers and may prefer to place its own legislation before Parliament when it considers the time is ripe. Experience after the last war proved how difficult and of what great magnitude is the task of returning thousands of soldiers to satisfactory civil occupations. After the Great War effort was concentrated largely upon land settlement schemes. That experience shows that while numbers of soldiers may thus be rehabilitated if plans are laid carefully, satisfactory arrangements are made for finance and the quality of the land is reasonable, wholesale land settlement will not alone provide the solution. High-priced land of indifferent quality might have seemed an economic proposition when the prices of produce were at the ridiculous levels reached at the end of the Great War, but when prices fell to the ordinary level the lot of many of the soldier settlers was far from what the sponsors of the schemes had hoped. One thing is certain. There is a general desire that New Zealand should make adequate provision for the men when they return, and it is not too soon to begin planning now. Even if Mr Lee’s Bill does not receive the official blessing it at least provides a basis for discussion and will spur the Government to action with the same objective in view. Broadly, the measure proposes that the soldier, sailor or airman should not be expected to sacrifice anything economically because he has served his country, and that he should be guaranteed five years of employment at not less than £5 a week. Further information regarding the Bill will be available when the second reading is taken at an early date.