CARE OF SOLDIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 230, 28 September 1928, Page 8

CARE OF SOLDIERS.

SOUTHERN CROSS LEAGUE. APPEAL TO THE MINISTER. At a meeting of the Southern Cross League yesterday, the president (Mrs. Adams) in the chair, a resolution relating to the care of soldiers was carried, as follows:— '"That in view of the large number of applications from soldiers for war pensions, or increases of war pensions, that have been declined by the War Pensions Board, also of the reports of various doctors, which have been upheld by the War Pensions Appeal Board, this League is of opinion that the War Pensions Board and the doctors reporting on the individual cases are not administering the War Pensions Act in a sympathetic manner. The League particularly brings the matter under the notice of the honourable Minister of Defence on account of the large number of physically unfit ex-soldiers who are calling for assistance. At the last Appeal Board 12.> cases of appeal against the War Pensions Board's decision were heard, and approximately 66 per cent were successful in gaining pensions. The League would specially bring under the Minister's notice the case mentioned in the House by Mr. A. Harris, M.P., of an ex-soldier who was gassed in 1917, received no pension, was physically unfit, and died in 1927. The post mortem revealed a distended, discoloured body with a green tendency. Death was due to dilation of the heart, as a result of mitral valvular disease of the heart, due to gas poisoning, the patient having lived nine years after being gassed in France. Doctors also in New Zealand have upheld the same view (due, no doubt, to lack of experience) that after three or four years gassing left no ill effects on the body. This large percentage of successful cases at the Appeal < ourt demands immediate attention by the Defence Department, in view of the many eases of physical unfitness among men who are without pensions, and without e\en their country's consideration."