Financial Assistance to Soldiers.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16145, 25 February 1918, Page 6

Financial Assistance to Soldiers.

The Minister of Defence has issued a lengthy reply to the complaints made [by the Wellington Second Division League regarding tho manner in which the Financial Assistance Board is doing its work. The League, it will bo remembered, quoted a number of cases in which it appeared that the Board had cither icfused to make any grants of assistance or else had made grants of tho most exiguous kind. It was also made clear that the Board, not in one case, but in several cases t ' had laid it down that insurance premiums could not be paid on new policies. Moreover, a printed form was produced which showed that the Board was in some cases rescinding existing grants, on the ground that the separation allowances had been increased. The Minister has obtained from the Board a report upon the specific cases quoted, but that report is not available to us at present. As to the second point, the matter of insurance policies, Sir James Allen explains the matter as an official's mistake. However that may be, the Second Division men will welcome the Minister's assurance that the Board will not refuse to pay the premiums on new policies if circumstances warrant it. In the cases in which financial assistance has been stopped, the explanation given ■is that this assistance was based upon the old allowances, and would, if continued, produce substantial and unjustified inequalities. This appears to be quite reasonable. Finally tho Minister quoted some cases in which the wife of a soldier is just as well off financially as she was before her husband left, or even a little better off.

While the cases cited by Sir James Allen certainly debar the inference from the League's cases that the Board's policy is indiscriminately harsh and grudging, the.y give some colour to the suggestion that the grants are not always made on a single clear principle. It ought to be possible to lay down such a principle in such a way that no dispute could arise, although upon the point of what constitutes "hardship" there cannot "be agreement, sinco what would be hardship in one case would not be hardship in another. In the meantime Sir James Allen concludes his dcfence of the Board with an undertaking as ample and satisfactory as anyono can wish. "It is not my "desire," he says, "nor is it tho desire "of the National Government, that "the financial assistance regulations " should be administered in a niggardly "spirit, and I am sure that my col- " leagues with me are prepared to give " every possible guarantee that this "principle will be fully carried out. ". . . Let it be clearly undortsood "that any one dissatisfied with t).e " financial assistance given may at env "time apply for a rehearing, and I "guarantee that their cases will re- " ceive the consideration they de- " serve." If the Board acts up to tho spirit of this undertaking, there will be no grounds for further 00m-1 plaint.