THE R.S.A. DEMANDS.
OPPOSED BY N.Z. EXECUTIVE. COMPROMISING ITS POLICY. By Telegraph.—Press Asßociation. Wellington, Last Night. The general secretary of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, in a statement regarding gratuities, points out that the executive for some months prior to the Christchurch conference had been in communication with the Minister for Defence on the subject, and the matter was fully considered at the conference. The gratuity, if it waß to be regarded as a matter of right, could ( obviously only be considered in relation to the whole question of what constituted a square deal for the soldier. So far as he was aware this had never been comprehensively defined by anybody, and was in Itself an extremely complicated problem, apart from the particular scale of obligations of the State to the soldier. It might be -exhaustively defined under the following headings: (1) Payment for service; (2) Pension for suffering and disability; (3) Compensation for economic disability and loss of opportunity.
The secretary added that the recent precipitate action of the Wellington H.S.A. has thus compromised the New Zealand executive in its whole policy of securing a square dea\ for soldiers. From the statement of those responsible for it, it would appear that they regard the gratuity as compensation for the loss of opportunities and for hardships and dangers endured. It thus appears they consider the gratuity should supplement the present scale under each of three heads above, and the presumption appears to be that the gratuity on the scale proposed would be regarded as the full discharge of the State responsibility in these respects. The relation of the gratuity as compensation for the loss of opportunity to the operations of the Repatriation . Department, which largely exists for the same purpose, appears to have been overlooked.
The secretary, in conclusion, said the demands of the deputation were indirect and apparently intentional opposition to the declared policy of the Dominion conference, which democratically represents the whole body of .returned soldiert throughout New 'Zealand. I
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Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1919, Page 4
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333THE R.S.A. DEMANDS. Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1919, Page 4
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