A DISTRESSING CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2374, 31 December 1921, Page 2

A DISTRESSING CASE.

THE death of an ex-Service man at Ashburton on Boxing Day, under very distressing circumstances, calls for some explanation, says the Post. The Coroner, in his rider, states in effect that the unfortunate man should not have been allowed by his country, which he had faithfully served, to “live and die under conditions of extreme poverty.” The man was found to have inflicted his own death-wound “while suffering from bad health and depression.” The whole circumstances of the case, as revealed at the inquest, were such as to have drawn from him the censure above referred to. It is to be feared that the case is one of the many sad legacies of the war. Men, possibly without scratch, wound, or dismemberment to show, men who look well and at times feel well, may, notwithstanding, be suffering acutely in “mind, body, and estate,” as a direct result of their active service. Added to this may be the dread, not without reason, of their being regarded as loafers by a Government that feels its duties to men broken by the war have now been fully discharged. It is highly probable that the evidently severe mental strain to which mite man was subject may be felt by many men returned from active service richer in experience but poor in all else. Such men should still

be safeguarded; and (hat not only in their own .interests. —We agree with our contemporary, for we believe aii

inquiry is necessary to impress upon a number of medical men, pension officials and patriotic committees that many returned men without a physical scar are entitled to ns much consideration by reason of a wrecked nervous system as are the

limbless or those suffering from wounds.