"BELIEVED TO BE DEAD"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2797, 15 June 1916, Page 6

"BELIEVED TO BE DEAD"

DELAYS IN SETTLEMENT OF SOL--1 DIERS- ESTATES. A great deal of difficulty has been experienced in settling the estates of soldiers believed- to have lost their lives on active service, more especially in securing the payment of moneys due under insurance 'policies. This applies to tho very large number of men reported "missing, believed to be dead." The Defence Minister, making a statement on this subject in the House yesterday, said that the delays had been due to the fact that the Defence Department could not say that the missing soldier was actually dead. A man was just reported missing. A time was allowed to elapse, and then boards of in-quiry-sat in Egypt, and if the evidence presented justified the conclusion, they declared that the soldier was dead. Oil that certificate, opinion was taken at tho time, and it was not considered p'ossiblo for the Defence Department to give a definite certificate of death. Recently, however, the matter had been reconsidered, and the Defence Denartment would now issue a definite certificate of death in the case of every man reported "missing, believed to be dead." This would set over a gTeat deal of the difficulty that had occurred. This arrangement would apply esnecinlly to the cases of men lost in Gnllipoli. about whose death there could be no doubt nfter the lapse of a considerable t'me. The posilion would bo rather different on the -Western front. The fact of a man's disappearance there could not be accented as conclusive evidence of his death. Tt might, be that the man had been taken prisoner or that h" had deserted. The new rulinc would affect the estates of some 700 cnldierc. ■