EX-IMPERIAL SOLDIERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 7

EX-IMPERIAL SOLDIERS

COMMISSION DISCUSSES RELIEF PROBLEMS OFFICIAL SILENCE BLAMED JVeas Association WKLLIXGTOX, Thursday. •.Men who come from other parts of the British Umpire, and who have now broken down in health, are not the responsibility of any local patriotic fund, and apparently the National War Funds Council cannot continue to grant assistance.” said Mr. J. Mason, president of the Napier Iteturned Soldiers’ Association in slvinft evidence before tlio Soldiers' Rehabilitation Commission today. ••Some reciprocal arrangement should be mad ." said Mr. Mason, "and 1 think that whatever further assistance is recommended l,y the commission it should be made eh ar that such assistance is not for the benefit of men who may come here in the future; otherwise we shall have an influx of men who are desirous of obtaining all the benefits coni, rred on New Zealand returned soldiers.” •A most inexplicable tiling ~o us is the Imperial doveniment," said Mr. J. S. Barton, S M . chairman of the commission. "Karl Jollicoe went Home fully apprised of the serious nature of the problem, and simply battered himself uselessly against official silence. He had to admit having accomplished nothing. Other officers have fared the same way The members of the Government seem to shelter behind the permanent heads. The permanent heads think men were made for the rules, and not the rules for the turn. We are going to try. I hope the new High Commissioner ran do something. 1 am going to do something next year. There are 20,000 Imperial men in this country. It is a very wavy burden. If we did do anything w-e would simply invite others to come out. The net result of continual applications by influential bodies here has teen nil.”