WAR PENSIONS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2624, 20 November 1915, Page 4

WAR PENSIONS

The Government evidently wants plain speaking to bring it to a proper realisation of its obligations to the men and the dependents of the men who are 'fighting the battles of the nation—and Ministers are getting it, For a long time past the unsatisfactory nature of the War Pensions Act has been discussed and enlarged on in the columns of the Press, on the public platform, and practically wherever men and women congregate. The right of every citizen who offers his life in his country's service to look to his country to care for his dependents is admitted by everyone, but Parliament, under the War Pensions Act, has failed to give the certainty of a definite pension which can be claimed as a matter of right. Parliament has thus been guilty of failure to recognise its obligations. This, no doubt, was mainly due to the fact that the working of the War Pensions Act was not fully understood at the time it was passed into law; .but thcro_ can be no excuse now for hesitation on the part of the Government in. undertaking to remedy the shortcomings . disclosed. Why the Government has hesitated up to the.present to, declare its determination to_ give effect to what is so obviously fair and just is difficult to understand. The Minister of Defence recently _ remarked on the necessity for care in our expenditure, and he spoke of this being a war of attrition in which we must carefully nurso our rcsburces, or words to that effect; and no doubt ho 'was stating the simple truth so far ai our ordinary expenditure is concerned. But would he o.r any other member of the Government dare to suggest that the pensions for the dependents of bur soldiers killed in action are a legitimate field for the_ exercise of this rigid cconomy 1 Wo cannot believe that Ministers arc so utterly out of touch with public sentiment to suggest any such thing. Yet there has been a great deal of quite unnecessary delay in making a reassuring pronouncement on the subject. There are very few people indeed •who will not endorse the views of Me. W. FEnausoN, expressed at the conference of delegates of patriotic societies yesterday, on_ the subject of war pensions; If Ministers have any lingering doubtß as to what the public think of the War Pensions Act they should be dispersed by the outspoken utterances of the representative body of gentlemen who met here yesterday. The report of the War League, which we publish this morning, is a Turther, and a very complete and emphatic, declaration of the same 1 nature. The Government appears to have a quite wrong sense of perspective. It quite properly urges the necessity for economy; but does not Becm to know where to It may shock politicians to learn it, but the country would endure with serene equanimity any economy in the direction of cutting down the salaries of Ministers and members of Parliament, whereas they will resent with the utmost vigour the parsimonious treatment of the dependents of the men who have laid down their lives for their, counbry. Judging from the remarks of the Minister in charge of the War Pensions Department, Mr. Myeks, in reply to the patriotic delegates yesterday, there is some hope of the Government taking early, action in the desired direction. What we cannot understand is, why it has hesitated so long.