RETURNED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 212, 2 June 1920, Page 8

RETURNED SOLDIERS

THE DOMINION CONFERENCE

YESTERDAY'S PROCEEDINGS

The annual conference of tho Ifew Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association was continued yesterday, Dr. ii. Roxcr presiding.

The Medical Committee presented a report coreriug various remits set down on tho order paper. The committee recommended that where there wero' sol-dier-patients in hospitals in their districts ■under fiospiuu and charitable aid boards, that the Returned Soldiers' Association of that district should nominate a man to stand for election on the board, and sifauTd assist the candidate in the election. In respect to a remit from Palmerston North, that only returned doctors should bo appointed examining doctors unders the Pensions Act, tho committee reported that it had definite information that such was tho case. It was recommended that wives and widowed mothers of returned soldiers who had become of unsound mind, and those who wero totally permanently incapacitated as a result of their war services, should be eligible for the benefits of the D.S.S. Act and the Repatriation Act. Tho committee favoured tho passage of a remit from Temuka, that patients travelling to and from hospitals should be granted first-class accommodation, and that all patients travelling on tho Main Trunk line should in future be provided with sleeping berths. Tho report was adopted. A remit was brought forward from the Invercargill brancii, asking that the De-; fence Department be placed in the same position as all other Government Departments as regards the payment by the War Expensed Department of euper : animation premiums of members on active service. The remit was carried. On behalf of tho Auckland branch, Mr. E. 'F. Andrews moved that the .band instruments and equipment previously belonging to Hie N.Z.E.F. should be donated to 'returned soldiers' associations. • Mr. Andrews said he felt sure that by means of bands tho members of the association would be kept together. Tho remit was carried. Various remits passed were as follow: "That Del'enco Department bonuses be applicable to members on active service abroad as well as to those remaining in New Zealand."—lnvercargill. "That all returned soldiers' pensions be free of income tax."—lnvercargill. "That the allowance of ss. per diem as paid by the Defence Department to limbless wien whilst attending. the limbless repair factory is inadequate, and that this allowance be at least doubled, also in respect to men resident in city or suburbs."—Auckland. Tho conferenco will bo continued to-day.