OUR RETURNING SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 79, 28 December 1918, Page 6

OUR RETURNING SOLDIERS

■Somf, 10,000 of our troops, the Minister op Defence stales, will be returned 16 New Zealand within the next three months. The majority of these will be convalescents from the various hospitals, hut t-Tle time is not distant when an increasing number of fit men will he swarming back to resume civilian life. It is desirable therefore that preparations for the great task of providing for the repatriation of our soldiers should be pressed forward. Although a new Department of State has been specially created to deal solely with this * work, the whole-hearted sympathy and support of the public arc absolutely essential to ensure that complete measure of success which it should be the willing endeavour of all to attain. Unless this now all-import-ant problem is handled intelligently, with a minimum of "red tape" and in a generous spirit, we' will stand in danger of losing some of the fruits of a dearly-bought peace. It is conceded that the people of all the Allied countries arc under a moral obligation of the most binding nature to see that each soldier, and in particular the disabled soldier, on his return to civil life is placed in a position equal to if not better than the one he occupied before he enlisted in tho service of his country. The life of a soldier admittedly is an unsettling one; it deprives many men of those qualities the possession of which is so necessary for success in the professional, commercial, or industrial field. Many men will return with grievances—some real and some imaginary; many have returned—and there arc many still to come—more pr less physically incapacitated, victims of wounds, disease, snattered nerves, and other disablements. Tho problem of the future of these men will demand the attention of the best minds of the country, unhampered by officialism and backed by an active public opinion. Should there be any lack of t confidence- on tho narfc of the returning men, should misunderstanding and distrust be allowed to creep in, there will be laid a train of evils which will do incalculable harm.

The Repatriation Act provides for the setting up of local committees to assist the Department in its work, and the work of these local committees is likely to be a big factor in the success or failure of the whole scheme. If each community in the country—the smallest country townships as well as the citieswere made to feel something in the nature of a personal responsibility for the future welfare of its own men, a big step forward, would result. It must be insisted that the private employer as well as the Government, lias a duty to the man who has fought and suffered for his country. To create this fooling of responsibility on the part of the public should not be difficult, provided those in authority set to work in the right way. A quick and sure way of making a country-wide appeal for co-operation lies in a well organised and skilfully conducted publicity" campaign. Half measures will be of no use. The public must be made to realise that the problem of the returned man is not the concern of Minister's and the Department only. It is the concern of the whole community, the concern of each individual' To shirk this obligation in the smallest degree would be to our overlastine shame.