POST-WAR .PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 144, 13 March 1920, Page 6

RETURNED SOLDIERS' '.TASKS

ADDRESS BY MB. J. FOX

After-war problems wen* discussed by Mr. John Fox in nil address to the Heturned Soldiers' Afisoc-iation Inst night, Mr. Fox said in opening that the U.S.A. had placed its mark on nil the Dominioh'> legislation' dealing with returned soldiers. It had been formed mainly fur purposes of comradeship, but it had found at the beginning tlmt it had to liijhl- Whatever: had been done for tho. returned msn had been done by tlio association.

It was a rather disheartening /act, said Mr. FoS, that the repatriatioto arrangements were not as good as they ought to be even to-day. A vital question for returned soldiers was tbe cost of living. No other problem pressed so heavily upon the men who bad fought. Men had been asked to fight, and later they had been sent to,'fight._ These men had a right ito expect justice on their return, and they ought not to be made the victims oi inflated' prices. .He believed the people wove just beginning f o realise the extent liud magnitude ,of the evil that had arisen. If the U.S.A. would iiut the' problem of prices into its national policy, it would arouse- uiore •vit.husiasm than it was doing at tha | present time.

Another .pressing question was land ■settlement. The men who had fought "■ere iieing fleeced by being require.! in nay inflated ..prices for the land they bad 'blended. Tlie people who stayed nt home bad made the va't profits out, of land, and the sold'ers were required to nay. A farmers' conference had carried iv motion proposing that land held in excess above certain areas should 1)0 talien ninipnUnrily and handed to Iho soldiers "<i> pre-war prices. There was work for the B-S.A. in this matter, and it 'was not too late to piit enthusiasm into the work of the organisation. Mr. Fox proceeded to condemn the wrpTKling and dissension that had arisen within tlie U.S.A. He had been forced to ~onsider seriously, he. said, whether he would ever attend another meeting of the association.

Turning to reconstruct ion matters, Mr. Fox said that no retimed man had a right to demand ■ such reconstruction as would be unsafe for tlie country. But the soldiers ought to take an important r.art in the national tasks that had to. be fared.- Things were not working too bright to-day. New Zeahuid had lamer, responsibilities than'ever before. It had undctaken duties beyond its own borders and unless it was able to lay its plans wisely it would be caught in another war within ten years. He believed that the R.S.A.' ouprht to become a national body with national ideals. He hoped that it would ndopt a national platform, i If the soldiers werp united their organisation would play n big part ■' in tho counsels of- the Dominion. If it lacked strength, then the trouble must be sought within the association.