WHEN THE WAR IS OVER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 290, 13 September 1915, Page 2

WHEN THE WAR IS OVER.

WHAT OF OUR HEROES? Is there any wond-ar that w e love thorn,, these marvellous Tommies of ours? Nov,- that they are lighting and flying for us, these hJrces of tiu trenches, we think notjbing too good for j them. But when it in all over and when j the war is at an end—what are we j gjing to do for our Tommies then? Tommy is too much of a philosopher to expect much. He will expect, however, to get !hi 3 job back if he returns hale, and well, is that job going to be j kept open for him? What about his i pension, if lie comes back unfitted by wounds fdr th e hard work of the mine, the mill, the shipyard, or the less physically severfe toil of the desk or the counter? I s that pension going to be sufficient to keep him and his • family, if he has one, in anything ap- j proachnig th e comfort lie enjqyed in I civil life before he went to the war. j If it i s not, we. Britons will b e a na- j fion of shameless ingrates. Whatever j it csts, the men who come back to us maimed and llroken from the war must b e provded for, and that adequately, j But there are others who will never j come back —the thousands and thou- I sands of brav e men who have died for you and m e and tihe Empire. How are we going to keep their memory gtreen? By looking after their widows and orphans and dependents. But how? By , th e aid of mor e pauper doles? I trust not. The pensions scale for the dependents of our dead heroes must be revised, and 'revised along lines that will show our appreciation as a nation of tihe sacrifices ma.de by the men who died fighting for us. Let the taxpayers see to it Robert. Blatchford in London "Weekly Despatch."