REPATRIATION OF SOLDIERS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16168, 23 March 1918, Page 6

REPATRIATION OF SOLDIERS.

LABOUR COUXCIL'S VIEWS. (press association telegram.) PUXEDIX, March 22. A meeting of the Labour Council resolved to communicate with the Federation of Labour suggesting action of a national character, through the Federation Executive, regarding the repatriation of soldiers, the recommendations following the lines of the agreement between the Government and the federation, and providing facilities for eraploying incapacitated soldiers either as under-rate workers or as learners, the terms of agreement to bo made an Order-in-Council. Wages are to be fixed by a'Soldiers' Employment Hoard, consisting of the employer, a discharged soldier, and Government and trade union representatives. The total wages, inclusive of the Government subsidy paid to a soldier, to be not less than the minimum wage operating. The difference between the sum paid by the employer and the minimum union wage is to be borne by the State, and this is to bo met by a direct tax on land values in the Dominion. The minimum rate to be exclusive of any pension, and during the currency of an under-rate permit, or the period of apprenticeship of a soldier, the Pensions Board shall not review the pension. The period of apprenticeship or the currency, of a permit to be estimated from the time it is first granted till the soldier is declared a competent worker.