R.S.A. RALLY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16420, 14 January 1919, Page 7

R.S.A. RALLY.

VARIOUS MATTERS DISCUSSED. A vers- successful informal rally of returned soldiers took place at" tho rooms of tho Returned Soldiers' Association last evening. The of tho Association, Mr N. 8.~ McCallv.ni, presided over a very large attendance] and in tho sovoral speeches useful information was given as to repatriation, retiospective allowances, the memorial hali, and lie turned Soldiers' Club schemes, and other matters of interest to returned men.

In his address to the gathering Mr McCailum spoke at some length on the 's question of repatriation. 'Ihe execu- - 10 tive, he said, had entered into com- , mumcation with various Associations , tliroughout New Zealand and Australia s on this vory important matter and eventually a local committee of influen. n tial citizens formed and forwarded a ( | s'/heme to headquarters. Other centres , did the same, and finally headquarter® '' embodied various of these suggestions d into what it considered a sound scheme :o and forwarded it to the Government h What was known as the North Canterd bury Repatriation League had a'6o been . formed and had dono extremely valuable work. However, it appeared from ' T what tho Government had done, that tho soldiers' proposal had been simply scrapped and thrown into the waste paper basket. Mr McCailum commented at some length on the Bill which had I been hurriedly pushed through Parliament last session, without its terms being known to the various Associations, even though the North Cantere bury League, for one, had been promised that it would have an opportun nity of seeing the provisions of the Bill 0 before it actually went before the House. Ais a matter of fact, the Bill iWas nothing more nor less than a •" broad empowering Bill. The returned soldiers, Mr. McCailum proceeded, were not a political body; they were not out to oppose the Government, but to do all they could to help it, if they got a square deal, but if they did not, then they must use their pressure. Mr McCailum read lengthy correspondence regarding the Bill which was recently q passed, and proceeded to state various _ reasons why the Expatriation Board 1 should not consist of four Ministers, and why the Director of Repatriation should be a civilian and the most capable business man that could be secured for the position. In these respects, too, the wishes of the Returned Soldiers' Associations had not been given effect to. Continuing, Mr McCailum said that the Government had promised employment on public works for returnf ed mon, but it was hardly fair play to - ask a man to take up pick and shovel work, just because he ~ had been used to digging trenches h on the other side. (Applause.) j As to the future action, Mr McCailum s urged that before anything could be J. done in the way of furthering the repatriation question, there must be T unanimity amongst the returned soldiers J of New Zealand. Referring to retrospective allowances, Mr McCailum said tnat the work of headquarters in this * direction had also been considerable. Through, the efforts of the Second Division League, increased allowances had been secured for married men's depen--4 dants, but, nevertheless, nothing had 1 been done by the Government for the dependants of married men who had gone to the war voluntarily earlier in the combat. In this respect, too, the Government had not met the Associa- > tion's full request, but nevertheless, the Associations nad gained something like 11 two-thirds of what they had advocated. Mr McCailum read lengthv correspondt once on this matter .also, and comment- > ed that if the Government thought fit f to make increased allowances when s pressure was brought to bear, then it 1 was only fair that those who had gone i voluntarily to the front in the earlier r stages of _the war should receive similar I consideration. (Applause.) With re- - gard to the bonus scheme, Mr McCal- : lum said that very little was known - as yet with regard to the Government's f intentions. The amount allotted was 1 . well known, but there had been little s information as to the working out of 1 - the actual details. : Mr O. T. J. Alpers addressed tho j j gathering on the scheme for the erection of a Soldiers' Memorial Hall and 1 a new Soldiers' Club, which scheme he 1 considered was not going down with j the public quite as well as might have , been expected. The public appeared to be giving attention to suggestions of all kinds coming from all quarters, except the one that should be taken- ] notice of most, namely, the returned soldiers. .For his own part, he could 1 not possibly conceive* any sectioa , of the public • that should have 1 more say on the scheme than the returned soldier. The idea was not a civilians' notion, but a soldiers' notioni purely and simply—a soldiers' desire to celebrate peace by putting up a perma-nent-memorial to. their fallenjoomrades. That was a fine idea, a sane idea, one} a noble idea. (Applause.) Mr Alpers went on to outline brfefly the suggested! f scheme of the Hall of Memories and the ■new club, and after expatiating on the ? obligation of tho public to returned J men, urged the members of the Asso- J ciation to thoroughly back up the exec- c utive in its effort to raise £20,000 'for f the purpose, and to help actively as far 6 as they possibly could. He was quite * certain tnat the effort would succeed. 4 All that it wanted was "pushing." He 1 had read with interest the views of vari- v ous. citizens on the question of the most t suitable memorial, and ho could think 1 of no more suitable one than a Hall of y Memories and a social club. Incidentally, Mr Alpers remarked that Sir t James Allen had looked rather depre- ' eatingly on such schemes, "because they 0 | smacked too much of the returned sol- | flier,'' and if that were the attitude of 11 tho Minister of Defence, what woukt a that of the man in the street be if the » scheme were not "pushed home" proper- i' ly? Personally, ho did not think that b Sir James over perfectly understood tho T true spirit of the soldier. Sir James n was a "straight" man—for a politician o ho was a marvellously honest man —but the returned soldiers would have to 11 teach him and tho public what the true spirit of the soldier really meant. (Ap- f plause.) , d An informal "round the table" dis- ti eussion on various points raTsed ensued, T and later a resolution was pnssed sin- 1 cerely thanking all the prominent citi- ti zens who had taken an active interest fi in giving effect to the returned and re- n turning soldiers' wish that a campaign n be instituted for the erection of the h hall and club. The resolution further lj pledged those present to give their un- b divided suoport to the campaign, and a also appealed to the citizens of N-orth w Canterbury to support the scheme liber- ii nlly. A tasty supper brought a profitable t: evening to a conclusion. o!