RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1918, Page 4

RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

ALTERATION OF CONSTITUTION

By Telegraph—Proa Association. Auckland, May ;]O. The Returned Soldiers' conference has postponed for a year the proposal to alter its constitution, providing for a council of delegates meeting half-year-ly to control policy matters, and for an executive committee of ten, resident in Wellington, to be elected by the council to conduct its affairs, with limited powers. Resolutions, however, were passed affirming the principle that the present system was unsatisfactory in the interests of efiiciency. The conference decided to urge the Government to make an increase in the allowances iu wives and children to be retrospective to 1914. The next conference is to be held in Christchurch. LAND SETTLEMENT. Auckland, May 31. The Returned Soldiers' (inference I adopted a series of recommendations for the settlement of soldiers on the land: I That all sections be ring-fenced, furnished with permanent water supply, houses and outbuildings erected where required; that in bush country the bush be felled, and burned, and the land grassed, fenced and roaded, as far as possible by returned soldiers, the cost to be capitalised; that returned soldiers be represented on land boards; that land boards exercise closer supervision oter soldiers' settlements; that applicants who have a limited knowledge of faming should work for suitable fanners in the district in which tHey desire to settle, for a definite period, after which they shall appear before the land board, and, if suitable, shall be eligible for future ballots, subject to the report of a committee of three farmers, the wages while a man is working for farmers to be fixed by the Government.

MINISTER'S VIEWS ON SEVERAL

MATTERS. Auckland, Last Night. Sir James Allen, Minister of Defence, met the Returned Soldiers' Conference and discussed,,a number of matters affecting the-.welfare of returned men and the country generally. Regarding the proposed Ministry of Repatriation, the Minister said he was sympathetic, but the problem was not easy. He had hoped the Minister in charge of the Information Department would be, in effect, Minister of Repatriation, but whether he was sufficiently so he could not say. The difficulty was that so many matters in the scheme came under different departments. The Minister in charge would have to keep in constant touch with his colleagues concerned in the matter, and his department should form the main channel of communication.

Dealing with the conference's resentment of the activity of the Second Division League regarding repatriation, Sir James Allen said that the returned soldiers, as men who had been to the front, had more knowledge of that aspect of the problem, but they ought to remember that the members of the league would be returned soldiers also some day. Dr. Boxer brought forward the need for special treatment for shell shock and neurasthenic cases in institutions set apart for the purpose, and for restrictions on the supply of alcohol to such men.

Sir James Allen said the help of the public was needed in regard to drink. Severe neurasthenic cases were being dealt with at the Karitane Home, and less severe cases were sent to Hanmer, but it had been found that the Wolff Home, at Auckland, was unsuitable and an effort was being made to find another place. The Minister agreed to obtain a new retun of eligible staff and territorial officers at present on home service, and said he agreed that such officers should be sent to the front unless there was a vital reason to tho contrary. So far as he remembered, the return showed only two such officers (apart from dentists), and these two had then been only recently passed as fit. He referred in detail to the Government reasons for sending First Division territorial officers into camp as sergeants, and stated that the rights of these men had been safeguarded as far as possible, though there were no active service commissions available for them.

As to the association's suggestion that the mufti allowance on discharge should be £5 ss, the Minister suggested that a committee be set up to meet the departmental officers to discuss the matter.

In reference to retrospective allowances to wives and dependents of maimed men, the Minister replied that he couldn't sec haw the proposal could be carried out. Everyone admired the men who volunteered, but he feared that the difficulties were too great. There was a distinction between the man who went voluntarily under the lower rates of pay and the man who was now being conscripted. The Government had found it absolutely necessary to raise the rates. He would see what could be done.

Tlie conference elected the following officers: President, C. W. Batten (Wellington) ; vice-presidents, Dr. Boxer (Napier), N. B. McCallum (Christchurcli), T. W. Stringer (Hamilton), J. Helling (Auckland) hon. treasurer, G. Munro (Wellington).