RETURNED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3181, 4 September 1917, Page 8

RETURNED SOLDIERS

DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS REPATRIATION v AND OTHER PROBLEMS ■ QUESTIONS ABOUT PROMOTION i The executive of tho lleturned Soldiers' Association has been sitting in Wellington for some and yesterday morning the-members of this body wait:ed upon Ministera of the Ci'own to lay before them certain of tho results' of tlioir deliberations. Tho Ministers present were the Prime "Minister (the Kight Hon. W. l'\ Massey), Sir Joseph "Ward, Sir James Allen, and the Hon. A. 1,. Herdman. -

. The first request put forward was Uiat the association should "be the recognised channel of communication as between tie Government and the general lxxly of returned soldiers. It was urged that tho association was in possession of-informa-tion 'which the Government could not obtain from any other soutco, and that tho association -would be only- too ready to communicate it, and in every possible way .to help the Government in its administration of tho Departments dealing with the. affairs of returned soldiers.

/ Repatriation. Mr.. J. I. Fox spoke of the problem of repatriation as a problem of the. future rather than the present. He said that the association had declared-its policy al the beginning—that it would remain outside tho vortex of party politics, and 111 putting forward the request for a Minister they -wished-not to'he misunderstood. But they did urge that the affairs of .returned soldiers could l>e more efficiently administered if they .vere committed_to tho charge of a separate Minister. . lhe question seemed to be whether llie appointment should be made now oi: alter tho war. The association maintained that the proper timo for the appointment was now, in order that the Minister and the Government might bo able to learn in tho meantime by experience and so to be Teady for the time when, the soldier,, would be returning from the front m bit, numbejg. jj a tten asked that a Parliamentary Committee should be. set up to investigate and doal with the affairs of returned soldiers. i,.„„' Mr. Massey : I am afraid you will ha\e diffioulty in getting a committee. There are a great number of committees sitting, now. Pensions and Land. Mr.' Harper spoke on the subject of pensions, and repeated the request that . returned medical officer should be Rppointedto tho Pensions Board The op.ninn of the association was that tnere wen. if this appointment incic made Hon to tho present. members of the Pitt rofor-ltotlm soUlement HiSii ss>r as bought under the land £ scheme, and that WJ 1 ™ 1 , . War ' made to the owners of land in \v. whom the executive had n st td Hereto soldiers - settled on unimproved bush or swamp d ; cession should bo n lt 1!l(1 y l)een found act as distributing agents for +ho snp •i v *. n settlers of such commodities as S&e ll was thought tot the ment would be able to get ithese things at vcrv much less prices than those at which the soldiers oould dihary market. He wished to othei' proposal to the Government: 1 o Govermnent had in these propo als for the aiding of soldiers wishmg .o „o on the land, committed itself to the ns.ist ance of a certain cli«s. had no complaints to make, but bo m surest that something should lie done also for the men who were not going on the land, in tho way of assisting,them to got homes for themselves.