SECOND DIVISION LEAGUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1918, Page 2

SECOND DIVISION LEAGUE.

THE AUCKLAND BRANCH. ATTITUDE OF RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION. The acting-secretary of the Auckland branch of the Second Division League, Mr R. Foreman, writing in reference to the attitude of the Returned Soldiers' Association, submits the following considerations:— "(1) When the Government proposed to reduce the conscript age from twenty to nineteen years every Second Division League in the Dominion protested, and protested successfully, so thstt the proposal was dropped. "(2) A certain section of the public in Christchurch passed some disloyal resolutions about refusing to go into camp until the demands of the Second Division League were conceded, but the league promptly and publicly disavowed any sympathy with such sentiments, and the whole of the local executive resigned because they felt that the passing of those resolutions seriously compromised them, and placed them in a false position. "(3) Although for the purposes of the Military Service Act many inar- , ried men are still treated as single, the Second Divison League has consistently adopted the principle that whatever ad- , vantages were given to Second Division , men should be ejotended to the wive 3 rSEa other dependents of married First Divisionists. "(4) Many months before Second Division men were ballotted. the league formulated a pension scheme which was immensely more liberal than the one in existence, and by the persistent agitation and work of the league the Gov- ■ ernent was finally induced to adopt this ■ scheme almost in its entirety, and returned men by the thousand and depen--1 dents of First Division men are enjoy- • ing far more liberal provision than ; would have been theirs without the efforts of the league. "(5) Members of the league executive in Auckland devote p. great deal of time and trouble to assist the wives and other dependents of reservists, and this help is given iust as readily nnd almost as frequently to the dependents of First Division men as to those of Second Division men. We intend to go . on with this work, and should we succeed in obtaining a '-ermnnent secretary i who can devote his whole time to the work, the dependents of First Division men and returned solders themselves ! will find his time and knowledge at I their disposal."