EX-IMPERIAL SOLDIERS’ APPEAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 487, 17 October 1928, Page 13

EX-IMPERIAL SOLDIERS’ APPEAL

NO MONEY FROM ENGLAND Press Association WELLINGTON. To-day. Representatives of the Returned Soldiers’ Association met Mr. F. Skevington, of the British Treasury Office, who took Lord Lovat's place, to discuss the position of ex-Imperial soldiers resident in New Zealand. The deputation stated that 70 per cent, of the cases being dealt with by the National War Funds Council were ex-Imperial men, and urged the right to participate in money available in England should be extended to men now resident here. It was pointed out that money raised in New Zealand was for the specific purpose of assisting New Zealanders, but was now being spent on immigrant soldiers. On the other hand, assistance was refused to New Zealanders at Home. A letter was read from a New Zealand soldier, who said that he had applied to five different funds and had been told that as he was a New Zealander, he had better apply to New Zealand. There were now 14,000 exImperial soldiers in the Dominion, and they would soon have more of them than of our own men. Mr. Skevington said he would place the points raised before Lord Lovat. A further point was raised that a number of men arriving were physically unfit. Mr. Skevington said that unless the men came out under the assisted passage scheme, a medical examination would not apply.