SOLDIERS' FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 234, 27 June 1919, Page 7

SOLDIERS' FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

SOME MISAPPREHENSIONS '' -EXPLAINED. > A recent announcement respecting tht, j extension of the soldiers' financial assist- -' '; ance regulations has apparently given. ; room to-a good deal of misapprebensirj". Numerous soldiers and their dependants '"-. have considered themselves justified in applying for "the "bonus"; some have in- :■ terpreted it as being in lieu of the war ,' gratuity. . As a matter of fact, the regulations have no relation' whatever to the retrospective married allowance or the war gratuity. In order to give legal form and'authority to the new proposals extending the Soldiers' Financial Assistance Board's powers, it was to use . the term "honus" iri»the regulations and to technically define the Soldiers' Financiay. Assistance Board.as a military service board. But it should be made clear , thafthe military service boards as generally- understood have ceased their functions, and have nothing to do with' soldiers' financial assistance, and also that the grants which may be made by (he Soldiers' Financial Assistance Board are not identical with the proposed war gratuity—which has not yet been-fixed—> ■nor the retrospective married-allowance ~ now in process of payment by the officer In charged war expenses,, Wellington... - Applications for retrospective* financial assistance should be sent only to the , secretary, Soldiers' Financial Assistants Board, Panama Street, Wellington. When a previous application has been made there is no need for another applw cation form to be completed arid-the re* ' quest should be made by letter only. The board desires to emphasise its policy] that only under very exceptional circumstances will cases be >eopened in Which a grant has been paid, and drawa attention to the real object of the new 1 , :; regulations, which is to admit applica-i tions from men who were serving abroad j when the regulations were gazetted on '\ January, IG, 1917, and who, on their re-< j turn find themselves faced 'with accu- '.; inulnted liabilities which they could not }. meet out of their military pay and other > sources of income. The board's extended powers now enable it to consider thess ' late applications, and to give the 6ama .' assistance as it would have provided if the soldier or his representative had sub* mitted an application whep the financial assistance scheme was inaugurated.