WAR RELIEF

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 124, 23 February 1928, Page 14

WAR RELIEF

ASSOCIATION’S ACTIVITIES FINDING WORK FOR MEN As the date of the armistice recedes, tlie dilficulty of satisfactorily solving applications for relief has increased, according to the annual report presented to the War Relief Association of Wellington yesterday. Firstly, stated the report, there was an annual increase in the number of claims submitted by men who were discharged fit A, but who subsequently developed a war disability that resulted in partial or complete cessation of civil employment. In many instances the ■ soldiers concerned had either married at a date in excess of two years subsequent to discharge, or were not, at preenlistment date, engaged to be married, so that their dependents were not eligible to receive a war pension. The difficulty was increased, secondly, by the large number of permanently disabled men who had been compelled —apart altogether from industrial and financial depression beyond their control—to approach the association for assistance to meet financial, domestic, and economic disabilities, to which they had become subject in the course of time, and which it was reasonable to assume the could have successfully overcome had it not been for the years they served in the field and the physical impairment they there sustained. The yearly increase in the number of applications submitted which disclosed recurring war disability involving cessation, or partial cessation, of employment with diminished earning power and consequent inability to meet cost of living and other necessary expenses, was another cause, and in such instances the services of the honorary medical adviser had been of the greatest value, both to the soldiers concerned and to the committee. The fourth reason was the greater number of claims submitted by those suffering economic loss catsed by inability to permanently secure the only work' the applicants’ physical disability would permit them to perform—e.g., light employment, and the fifth, the difficulty presented by unemployment cases. Many of these claims were pru marily social or industrial in character; quite a number of them displayed thriftlessness ; or a complete failure to provide for the future; whilst more of them were submitted by single men without dependents than by married men with or without families to support. Unemployment cases, stated the report, had been slightly more than twice as numerous this year, as compared with any other twelve-monthly period since the inauguration of the association. A special grant of £5OO representing the Wellington quota of the National War Funds Council’s Dominion distribution of a sum totalling £5OOO for the relief of unemployed soldiers, was paid over to the committee in September and October, 1927, and was now exhausted. During the year the executive had again considered whether the policy of assisting fit men should be continued, and had decided not to refuse to assist any deserving applicant merely because he' was discharged lit A. Many such applications had been received from men who had made heavy allotments to dependents, and had served in the field for four or five years. In cases of that nature and where the circumstances rendered it necessary, the committee deemed it proper to continue to assist. The Finance Committee during the year dealt with 245 applications for loans. Of this number 144 were new claims, and 101 revisions of applications previously dealt with, the latter covering claims amounting to £2995, the unpaid balances totalling £1714 ss. Id. The total amount applied for was £13,822 Bs. 3d. The sum of £1336 Is. 6d. was approved to new claimants, represented by 24 of the 101 new appli-

cations; of this amount £5ll os. 9d. had not yet come to charge. The remaining 77 new claims, representing cases wherein actual war disability was, from a financial point of view, non-interrup-tive of earning power, or where the sum applied for was larger than the resources of the association would permit it to advance to any individual case, were declined, the sub-total in question amounting to £12,486 6s. 9d. “The major portion of the outstanding advances,” added the report, “is covered by various forms of security, but the committee realise that some loss is, of course, unavoidable, most of the loans having been made to disabled men, who have little or no real security to offer, and many of whom may, at any moment, be deprived of, or suffer an interruption to, the ability to earn a livelihood; nevertheless, the (act that the percentage repayable and actually collected during the term of repayment covered by the period ended December 31, 1927, amounts to 68 per cent, speaking very highly for the probity ol our soldiers as a whole, although there certainly have been cases where neither gratitude nor a desire to repay were shown.”

The gross expenditure during the year under review, as shown by the income and expenditure account, was:—Fund “A” (disabled .men, and those discharged fit “A,” and subsequently developing a war disability), £1074 17s. 7d.; Fund “B” (fit men on long service, and who were in necessitous circumstances), £2275 Ils. lid.; making a total of £6350 9s. 6d. The total outgoings as at December 31, 1927, including secured loans, £28,420 ss. 3d., amounted to £163,191 2s. 2d. (exclusive of depreciation on office furniture and reserve account for irrecoverable loans) and £132,193 10s. 2d., equalling 80 per tent, had been expended since the Armistice. The balance brought forward as at December 31, 1926, less reserve account for irrecoverable loans £1382 12s. 6d.), amounted to £35,903 6s. If to this be added donations and subscriptions £1 55., interest £1339 10s. lid., repayments by applicants £330 14s. lid., and refunds by other societies £3712 9s. 7d., the total was £ll,287 6s. 5d., and this, less the expenditure of £7780 Bs. 3d. (excluding loans) left a credit to the accumulated fund as at December 31, 1927, of £33,506 18s.

Officers for the ensuing year were elected as follow .-—President, Mr. G. A. Troup; trustees, Mr. G. A. Troup, Sir John P. Luke; executive committee, ‘Messrs. L. O. H. Tripp (chairman), C. M. Luke (vice-chairman), G. 1. Mitchell, A. Macintosh, D. McLaren, C. M. Luke, G. Shirtcliffe; applications committee, Messrs. L. O H. Tripp (chairman), A. Macintosh (vice-chairman), G. T. Mitchell, S. Kirkcaldie, C. Watson, Sir J. P. Luke, C. M. Luke, G. Shirtcliffe, A. Veitch; applications committee, Messrs L. O. H. Tripp (chairman), C. M. Luke (vicechairman), D. McLaren, A. Macintosh, S. J. Harrison, G. Mitchell; emergency committee, Messrs L. O. H. Tripp (chairman), C. M. Luke (vicechairman), G. I'. Mitchell, S. J. Harrison, A. Macintosh.