PENALISING THE PATRIOTIC

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2888, 28 September 1916, Page 4

PENALISING THE PATRIOTIC

; FuHi inquiry will no doubt be made by. the Government into -the allegations of the Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway ' Servants published in our columns this morning. Briefly put, the position is stated to be as follows: Members of 1 the railway service before employment are required to undergo.a medical examination as to their physical condition. Having passed the prescribed test, they are employed, and are then entitled to certain compensation in case of accident. Since the war tho Department has very properly decided to keep open the positions of all railway employees who enlist. But some men who givo up their positions to enlist are afterwards turned down for medical reasons, and some' suffer injury in tho fighting lineß. In the case of those men when they return to their positions in the service, it is stated, they are called on to sign an undertaking releasing the Department from liability to pay compensation under certain conditions. The point to be considered is this: had these railway servants continued in their positions they would not have been placed at this disadvantage. But because they voluntarily came forward and offered their lives in defence of their country, and by their action led to Ihe discovery of some organic weakness or physical disability, or, it may be because they suffered injury in the fighting lines, their country turns round and penalises them. That is the allegation made. It is incredible. It is impossible to believe that so unjust, so shameful a thing has teen done deliberately and after full consideration of what it means. The Ministor apparently has not yet had the matter before him, and it js possible that the course to which exception is taken is'merely a temporary expedient , adopted as a precautionary measure until a definite decision as to i 'the policy to be.followed has been como to by the Government. If such is the case, it is still regrettable that grounds should haveueen given for the protest now made. The llailways Department, in the interests of public safety, cannot ' take the risk of employing men who ! owing to physical disability may { endanger the lives of those" who ' travel on tho railways; but that is quite another question. It is tho {

| men who have enlisted and who are re-engaged in tho railways service under tho circumstances stated that are affected, and we have not the least doubt that so far as the general public are concerned they would bitterly resent any attempt to penalise_ those men because of their patriotism, for that is what the accusation of the Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants amounts to. It is to be "hoped that the situation ' will be cleared up promptly, and that the 'Minister will make it plain that the Government has no intention of taking advantage of the men concerned in the manner alleged.