SOLDIERS’ ALLOWANCES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10276, 10 May 1919, Page 8

SOLDIERS’ ALLOWANCES

MINISTERIAL EXPLANATION. Speaking on the subject of allowances to soldiers’ wives, the Minister for Defence (Sir James Allen) yesterday made the following observations: “I note that Mr D. Seymour, general secretary of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, in commenting on the retrospective allowances that are to bo paid to wives of soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, reteis to the, condition that the allowances are payable as from the date of embarkation as a characteristic pettifogging effort of tho Defence Department to minimise the amount rightly due to them. This criticism is quite unjustified. This condition has not been imposed because of any desire to limit the monetary payment, but to meet difficulties due to tho very incomplete state of the early records of the Expeditionary Force camps. The records for tho Main Body and the earlier reinforcements do not indicate the status of .the soldier; that is, they do not indicate whether a man was in camp as a fit soldier due to embark for active service, or whether he was an unfit man engaged on home service. The only evidence of active service status in the case of the soldiers of the Main Body and early reinforcements is the fact of embarkation. That is the real reason why the condition making retrospective allowances payable as from embarkation has been imposed, as it gives the only clear and definite line of distinction between active and home service. It might bo possible in these cases for tho Pay Branch to trace eaon man’s history from the old records in order to ascertain tho date when he entered camp, but this inquiry would entail a great amount of labour, and would in many instances bo Inconclusive, and would certainly prevent the retrospective grants being available, m the first week in June next. As a matter of fact, IT would, delay t]ie payment for months.”