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New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10275, 9 May 1919, Page 2

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TO BE GIVEN IN FULL RETROSPECTIVE ALLOWANCES TO SOLDIERS. The conditions under which soldiers and their dependents may receive retrospective allowances have been announced. The Government has decided to pay the full rate of 3s per day as from date of embarkation, for all married men from the beginning of the war. Payment will bo made in the first week in June by special warrant sent direct to the payees. In the case of soldiers deceased ■ prior to December 31st, 1917, payment will be made up to the date of decease or to the date separation allowance was paid, if later. It will not be necessary for application to be made in respect of married soldiers undischarged on April 30'th, 1919, but in; the case of married soldiers deceased or discharged prior to that date applications will be required before payments are issued. These applications should be sent by letter to the Officer in Charge War Expenses, Wellington, and should contain the following particulars : —Regimental number, rank, and full name of soldier, reinforcement to which attached, date of discharge or deceasfe, full name and address of applicant. As a general rule, financial assistance is only payable to a soldier, but as experience has shown that many men belonging to tho Main Body and earlier drafts of reinforcements were uot aware, until their return to; the Dominion, that grants could bo received to meet the specified obligations set out later, it has been decided ■ by the Government to accept retrospective applications from men, whether before or after discharge, who were serving abroad when the regulations for the granting of financial assistance were gazetted, on January IBth, 1917, and who on their return find them selva vs faced with accumulated liabilities which they could not meet out of their military pay and other sources of income As applications cannot be received in definitely, the returned soldier must apply for assistance required within three months of his arrival in New Zealand... It should be noted that whatever assistance is granted caw only be in respect of liabilities incurred since the Inception of the financial as sistance scheme on January IBth, 1917,

It was the policy of the Financial Assistance Board to pay, interest onlj on all mortgages, the Board arranging with the mortgagors for postponement of principal payments in cases where the money was loaned under the system of table mortgages* As most soldiers on their return to civil life arc not able to pay these accumulated instalments. the has _decided to introauce legislation during the next ensuing session to afford the necessary relief. ©peaking in reference to this announcement, Mr i). Seymom, general secretary of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, pointed out that it merely referred to ‘the regulations under which the degree .of retrospection authorised by the Minister for Defence would take effect. The association wished to make quite clear that the Minister still denied his responsibility in the matter of such allowances to the chiluien. A further point _in_ tho above regulations was characteristic of the administration This was that while normally allowances are payable as from tho date of entering camp, retrospective allowances are payable only from the date bf embarkation. This pettifogging effort to minimise the amount rightly due to wives was of a type unhappily only too common, and one -which was likely to tax to the breaking point the patience of even the strongest supporters of the administration.