"BRASS HAT" PROBLEM CHILDREN

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5295, 7 January 1947, Page 3

"BRASS HAT" PROBLEM CHILDREN

The rehabilitation of ycung men whc went straight from school into oue of the fighti,ng servjices and there won high rank is a big prcblem now facing Australian returned servicemen's organisations. Flak, the magazire of the Legion of Exservicemen and Women, quotes the following cases of ex-officers whcse post-war jobs d:o not seem to tally Avith the posts tlley held during the war : — _ An ex-R.A.N., lieutenant-comman-der, aged 29, v/ho has become a gardener in Brisbane. He is expected to keep the engine of a 26ft. motorlaunch in running order. An ex-A.I.F., major, aged 26, who has taken a job with piclc and shovel in Melbourne. An ex-R.A.A.F., squadron-leader, aged 24, who has become a junior clerk ir- a manufacturing flrm. Flak makes the point that men like these know very little of adult civil life. Most of their knowledge hitherto came from brief leaves when they liad plenty of accumulated pay in their books and they met a good deal of hero-worship from women. For the rest of the war they lived an artificial life with batmen to wait on them and juniors to carry out their orders, until more than one ego became a little inflated. "Many men who during the war had £7 a week to spend on themselves are now lucky to have 7/- after they have paid for necessities," the journal adds. "For men such as these the Legion has coined the phrase, 'brass hat problem children,' and it is working hard to solve their problems. Through its employment bureau it does its best to steer them into suitable jobs. The Legion is determined that there shall be no 'dead-end kius' of World War II as there were after World War 1." !