USEFUL ASSISTANCE

Evening Star, Issue 24285, 28 August 1942, Page 2

USEFUL ASSISTANCE

GRANTS FOR SOLDIERS' DEPENDENTS (P.AA CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 2a. Applications totalling 12,445 had been received by the Soldiers’ Financial Assistance Board up to July 3x, said the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, Mm- < ister in charge of soldiers’ financial assistance, this morning, when releasing tho latest figures covering the board’s operations. The total commitments of tho board up to the same date reached a total of £159,572 lis Id. Mr Armstrong said tho board's commitments indicated that the applications were given verv generous consideration, to say the least. * Applications were received from men in the three services, or their dependents, and there was a maximum grant of £3 a week. He emphasised that tiio payments made by the board were straight-out gifts with no obligation for repayment. With every group of 1 men going into camp an increasing number of applications was being received, a position that was understandable in view of tho fact that tho men now being called up were men with greater commitments and greater family responsibilities than many ot those called up previously. Tho board had been set up early in tho war, but its operations on a major scale had only started in the last year or so. An interesting point was that every member of the board was a returned soldier. In making grants, the board’s object was to leave a man's dependents in a position as near as possible to that in which they lived before tho man went into camp. It seemed that assistance was sought principally to meet rent payments. There were many cases where wives, hut for assistance from the board, ■would have to give up their homes to live with relations. With assistance from the board they were able to keep their homes going for the day when their husbands retm-ned. Tho Minister said that from what he knew of its work the hoard was a very fine institution, and he had heard very few complaints.