SOLDIERS' BENEFITS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 256, 17 July 1918, Page 4

SOLDIERS' BENEFITS

MINISTER REPLIES TO SECOND DIVISION LEAGUE. Sir James Allen made n statement yesterday in reply to certain matters in tlio annual report of tlio Second Division League. "My attention has been drawn to a statement that is being published apparently broadcast by (lie Second Division League in its first annual report of tlio concessions and benefits which have been granted to soldiers and their dependants," said the Minister. "Tho purpose of the publication is evidently to give the impression to tho public that the whole of these concessions and benefits are solely due to the persistent agitation and pressure of the Second Division League. The method adopted by the league lias been simple. The executive appears to have taken the original conditions with respect to soldiers and their dependants, and compared them with those now in existence, and has assumed that the difference is entirely due to the work of tlio league. This assumption altogether eliminates members of Parliament individually and collectively, Ministers of the Crown individually and collectively, the Press, war .relief associations individually and collectively, tho Returned Soldiers' Association, tlio National Efficiency Board, administrative heads of the Defenco Department, and the large army of patriotic citizens throughout the Dominion who are continually suggesting improvements for tho benefit* of our soldiers.

"While 1 have no desire to discount the actual work that has been accomplished by the league, I do think it is necessary to point out that it has not a monopoly of initiative in these matters, nor a monopoly of good will towards soldiers and their dependants."