HELPING EX-SOLDIERS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1921, Page 4

HELPING EX-SOLDIERS

WAR RELIEF ASSOCIATION

The annual report of the War Relief Association of Wellington states that during the year, a “Disablement Committee” was set up to formulate a method whereby assistance could be •granted most efficiently to a large number of partly and totally-disabled men. The scheme, which received hearty support, was adopted by the executive and Finance Committee by whose authority the sum of £40,009— representing nearly 75 per cent of the total funds, has been lodged with the Public Trustee, constituting a separate investment, and designed as Fund “A,” which, in accordance with the intention | „f those whom the donors of the funds intended primarily to benefit, can be I drawn upon only by partly and totalhdisabled men, of whom there aro more than 500 in the district covered by the operations of the association; and bj those men who suffer a breakdown in

health consequent upon an incipient, hut previously unmanifested war disability. Provision to meet all other cases’of disability has been made by establishment of Fund “B”—which comprises the balance of tlie financial resources of the association. . . “The Applications Committee” (stales the report) “has paid tradesmen’s accounts of every description; has also supplied ha by clothes, paid maternity and funeral expenses; and has awarded irrnnts supplementary to pensions in cases when the sums granted by the Pensions Board are insufficient for the soldier to maintain himself and. his family in pre-war standard of comfort. In certain cimcumstances grants to soldiers proceeding to employment and ulso union fees have been paid, oideis issued for hoard and lodging, and for tools of trade; upon whom repayment „f a loan for the latter purpose, if awarded hv the Repatriation Department,, would ■ inflict hardship. These icpresent only a few of the numerous directions in which the committee has rendered assistance to members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, as well as to men who served with the Australian, Canadian, Imperial, and Smith African Forces, and to sailors and stokers who served, with the Grand iind Pacific Fleets. Numerous letters of thanks have been received expressing appreciation of the services rendered by tlie association. The applications dealt with during the past year |-. ;l ve been considerably more difficult n solution than those ot any other year. The time required to dispose of any given claim was fully 50 per cent more than required in previous years, for not only is every case submitted to the closest scrutiny, with the object of ascertaining that application, where tenable, has been made for a war pension, and to the Crown Lands Department, Repatriation Department, or other branch of State service, but it is frequently a matter of considerable difficulty to determine the degree of war disability and resultant economic loss.”