MAIMED SOLDIERS

Shannon News, 12 November 1926, Page 4

MAIMED SOLDIERS

STATE AH) IN A USTItALIA. PROM £4 TO £7 A WEEK. The Acting-Prime Minister of Australia, Dr. Earle Page, referring in Sydney recently to the assistance being granted .to ex-soldiers suffering from spinal disabilities or double amputations, said that there was no record of any recent official representations having been made to the department or Government. “In 192 2/ Dr. Page said, “the Australian Soldiers’ Repatriation Act was amended to give special consideration to such cases. An additional schedule was provided for special allowances to the. above types of cases whereby they were granted £1 a week attendant’s allowance, in addition to, thenspecial rate of pe.nsi.6n of £4 per week. Minor .amputations and the loss of one eye, etc., we 'also provided for by a graduated scale of .allowances, in addition Jo tlicir statutory rates under the War' Pensions Act. The special cases referred to receive a pension of £4 per week, and allowance of £1 for an attendant, 18s for his wife, 10s for the first child, 7s 6d for the sec r ond, and 5s for the third and each additional child. Where the ek-member is maintained in an establishment the allowances remain the same, save that he receives no attendant’s allowance, and his own pension is reduced to £2 2s per week—that is to say, a man • with" a 'wife and three children receives £7 Os ,6d a, week if he is living at home, gild, if living in an institution maintained at the public. expense, he receives £4 2s 6d a week. Though it has become the fashion in some quarters to depreciate what. Australia has done for her wounded soldiers, the fact must be stressed that this country is giving her ex-soldiers the most liberal treatment in the world. Last year war pensions alone amounted to £7,343,000.