Shameful Reward for Digger's Years of Agony

NZ Truth, Issue 1180, 12 July 1928, Page 1

Shameful Reward for Digger's Years of Agony

ANZAC f HERO'S PALTRY PENSION

■ .-:■ '■■ . • ; ■■.'■■■ . ■. .. ■ — ■♦ .'• . -. ... ■." . •■ • .'■•.. •' ;.'.,,;■.. ..•'■'■'■'••..•■'■■■■ ■ ' • ■ ' .''■'." ■ ■ '!'■-■'. ' i Ungmtefal Government's Disgraceful Treatment of Shattered Human Derelict ; W^ IN ABJECT POVERTY

k nilunm«MmmiummmiiimiiiiiiuiniiMiMnmnnnmmiMiminuimnlHniiiluiininMiiimMi»NcniMMliMnMmimimH«MnuMMitillimNmict»iiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiMiiiiiciiiciiiiiiiiciiMiiiiiimiiiicii mn iiiiihiiit iicimmiiiini uniiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuHiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiuii|iiiiuiiii»iiiiiiiiiiii imimiMmiiimnimumiMwimmmiMmnimumimmmiinimiiiiiimiimmmminmimminj § iniiiiiiiniiiiiiiuiiiiruiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiii Mtiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiliii jiiitiliriiiiititiiiiriiMiiiniiriii iiiiiiiiiiimji tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiniiiniuiiiMtiiiiiriiiiiiKMiini tiliiiiintititiirtiiiililTliiiiiiiiiiinillltilitlillilltliiniitii tiiiiliiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiil riiiniiiiii^ = I ' •." '■■'•■. '• ' (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Sydney Commiesioner.) . '. - || I■* IF THERE IS ANY JUSTICE at all about civilisation, what ought to be a country's responsibility to |[ || a man who gives one of his eyes/ his health and his worldly prospects while life remains, fighting for that same ft II country? . / . -.' , .^ :; . ■ , \ „ -'- . ' . ".•.-." v v - : |f |I '■ Is that man entitled to be guaranteed a living by the Government which flies' the flag he fought under? ]) I ! The New Zealand Government says "No" to this question m the case of Robert Fraser, a young Anzac badly^ || II smashed at the Gallipoli landing. 7 , ||

6= ■ . . . '- ■ ■■ . ' Jiiiiii iiiiuiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiitiliiiilliliiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiuiMiiiiiiiiiiitliii ilium AFTER years ,of painful struggling against the effects of the':dreadful gruelling, and 14 operations, Fraser now lies m the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, with still another operation to come as his last chance of living. • '■■•'. A part of his skull has been removed. His left eye is gone — torn out by the roots, it was— and the new theory of the many doctors there, who are studying his case, is that there is still some shrapnel embedded around his heart. Thus he, is hopelessly incapacitated. He has a wife and a little c son tb support, and the New Zealand Government thinks that^»o£- ;pej ri^eek. perision is i'enbu.^fiTfbV/siiiß^.martiJ'^v'V-.v-- * .■'V;>wi!^FTa;ser didn^t^get any VJC.'s or high distinctions out .of the big dust-up. '-' In fact, lie didn't have much time to distinguish himself. He simply- did the -whole lot* of. what any man can do, viz., his best. He was an Auckland boy and when the Dominion called for men he enlisted m Wellington within a few days. Just after the landing a Turkish bomb came his way. His left eye was torn out, the left side of his head shattered., and 1 the wounds about his body were too many to count. That ever he t lived to tell the story is a marvel, considering, especially, the cease- ;

A Broken Patriot

less years of. pain he has suffered since. .. j After being thus skittled, he was taken to ' Egypt and put into the Alex<andria Hospital. From there, he was sent back to New Zealand m 1916, a very much. .broken young patriot. . , . ■ . .., .'• < ' His case perplexed the New Zealand repatriation doptors, Lewis and ColoneJ Fyfe, and he was sent from there to St. Bartholomew Hospital, London, where he had most of 'the operations, during which his skull had odds arid ends of wreckage picked away frbriv.it,, the eye socket was further probed for debris, and a portion of his nose removed and substituted by something which the doctors there managed to graft on to it. .■■:'.' ': ■"' ■■■■■■;.■ ' ■'■: "■ Three months • before the armistice was signed, haying -done, their best for. him, they sent him back to New Zealand, a wreck of a splendid young man. And the Government, of this country decided, after due deliberation, . that his sacrifice was worth_ 30/- per week, and agreed to a. pension for him accordingly. ■"■ '..;■' . But 30/- per week is a hopeless sum for a man to try to live .on, and, cruelly handicapped for life's struggle m a mercilessly competitive world, he gathered up the shreds of his courage and went out again to sell his labor to society at the prevailing rates. ... By this time all the "shouting and Illllllllllllllllllllllllllllirilllliillllllllllll

iiitiiifiiiiiiiiriiiitiiititiii((iiiiititiiiniriiiiiii»riiiiiuitiiiiiiititiiitiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiitmi iiiiiiiiiiniiiitiiiiitiiiiitiitiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiititiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiuuiiiiitiiiiiii tumult" had died down considerably. up, to rest off for a time and make The world was getting back to cold a fresh start. . commercialism again, and those who _ > .. « „ , ' such a short time previously had been In A P ri1 ' 1926 > . he *** on h ® s-. spromising everything . to '-the boys m Fordsdale, and it Was while he had this khaki who saved the situation, noyv J° b that he married m New .South were "conspicuous by their .absence. 5 s ' A , . „ .. . •. Fraser was a sailor b.ef ore the war, But there 1S a limit to human en " and now, a wreck. of his former self, he durance, no matter how game a man went back to sea as a steward may be, and the conviction gradually His record with the" shipping com- * orced itself u P° n "im that his vital panics, before this, must have been for c e was J ust about s P?. nt ' f nd * nat particularly good, for he apoedra to he couldn't hope to keep his place m a have secured jobs on ships -juaT about bu sy world full of strong, whole men. as fast as he applied for them, b'ut'the he doctors now ■haye-.the same .controuble was that he ' now la.cketfi'the ystlon. , >.^» f^!;^.,, .^A V:^ ; strength tq; carry, ohl in; tlifim^ *T * "^i;^V^sr?'W ■■"■'"^.' '■■■■' '' ■:i.?* x ?*> ''.:'■'.■ r dbrful absorpti Origin the interests of by one he fiad. to give them suffering humanity which hiakes the JllltfllltllflllllllllllltllllllllllltlflllltlllllfllirfflilllllllllltlllllllllltlllllllMllllllfltllllllllllllllllltlllltlttlMltlllllllMltllllllllMllllllllflllllltlllllillltllltllllttllllllllllllllllllllli

HllHlMllMlHllllllHlllllltlllllllllHlllinillllllUlllllinillllllllllltllltllimlllUlllllllllllllllllllllUlltllltlllllA* E iiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiitiiiiiimiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiniiiiiiu immii public hospital doctors shine out m a selfish world, they say that they may be able to save, his life, but that the idea of him ever again being able to compete m the world's labor market is unthinkable. Since he has been m hospital a score of them have tirelessly examined his case. • - ■ \ Apa,rt from his lost eye, shattered head, and permanently shaken-ybeyond-repair nervous system, there is some heart trouble wh?ch so far has them all puzzled. It ,may"be v a piece of shrapnel m the j-egiqn;;'of, : .the\, heart; Isind the:;best ..they ■feariiooK'for^^d-Tfor dpTng'-is'tb put the X-ray oh him as soon' as he. is well enoiigh to go through the process. . That is the intention of a Sydney, heart specialist; who is particularly interested m the case and spends hours daily studying it; "I think I can save his life," said the doctor last week," but that is about my best hope of him. ■ Every few days. they open his veins and push artificial strength into him with syringes.. .';, . ' Everything that the sum total. of the science they possess among "thejh could do for an afflicted brother, they, do. They view him very differently' from what the Repatriation Department of

Reward of Valor

1 — ■- 1 New Zealand is doing; yet the Government of New Zealand, surely ought to be the first to take.'an interest m his case. . . The Dominion .officers of "the Repat." m Sydney say that the most any New Zealand soldier can get is a statutory pension of £2 per week, arid m very special cases an economic allowance of 30/-. . Fraser saw them a year ago, and they told him that m his case. 30/- was all he could get. After that a friend of his collected all the details of his war record and war operations, together with the opinions of several of the doctors m Sydney, and forwarded them to the New Zealand authorities.. Now that "N.Z. Truth" and. the doctors have spoken their minds about his case, those responsible will probably be shamed into doing the country's duty to one of; the Empire's soldiers, who, as matters stand at present, is physically helpless, economically destitute, And with his young wife and chiW; is completely at the mercy of the world. , - Fraser has this comfortipg reflection to cheer his hours of pain m hospital — viz., that his wife and child have, exactly 2/6 per week to live on — out 'of; 'the 30/- per week pension; 27/6 goes m rent.. ... .; . • , ; ; " Illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll