REPATRIATION POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1940, Page 7

REPATRIATION POLICY

GIVEN SERIOUS ATTENTION

BY R.S.A.

PRELIMINARY ACTION.

NEED OF TIMELY PLANNING

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day

It was understood that a conference of all interested, or likely to be interested, in the problem was to be convened shortly and the N.Z.R.S.A. was to be invited, said the president Colonel Cowles, at last night's general meeting of the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association, in reporting on the activities of the association on repatriation of members of the New Zealand Forces serving in the- present war.

On the motion of Mr H. McCormick, seconded by Mr A. L. Tressider, 11 was decided that the Wellington association set up a committee of five members to consider the problem of repatriating at the conclusion of the war men on active service and to forward their findings to the N.Z.R.S.A. to be placed before the proper authorities, and that the N.Z.R.S.A. be urged to request all other branches of the R.S.A. to set up similar committees. The committee elected was: Messrs McCormick, Tressider. T. H. Ashton. T. L. Buxton and K. Calder. Colonels Cowles, in his statement said that early in January. 1940, the Dominion executive committee commenced its inquiries regarding repatriation. In February, shortly after the departure of the First Echelon of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Mr Savage, then Prime Minister. was written to requesting that something should be done immediately to go into the question of repatriation. This letter was followed by a request for representation of the New Zealand Returned. Soldiers’ Association upon "any boards or committees set up to deal with any subject or problem affecting the members of the New Zealand Forces overseas." During the subsequent correspondence Messrs C. W. Batten (who was formerly the officer in charge of the Repatriation Department (Wellington branch) and W. E. Leadley (the Dominion organiser of the Soldiers’ Civil Re-establish-ment League) were nominated as the N.Z.R.S.A. representatives. A letter received in July from the Minister of Finance slated: “Your council may rest assured that the Government will give careful consideration to the desire of the Returned Soldiers’ Association and will be glad tc include its representatives in any cases where such representations will improve the efficiency of ’the organisation." In this reply, the Minister made reference to the fact that five of the seven members of a certain board were returned soldiers. The Dominion executive committee replied pointing out that while members of any board might be returned soldiers “representatives of the N.Z.R.S.A. were chosen by reason of years of experience in handling problems confronting returned soldiers in civil life.” On May 3. 1940. delegates from the Dominion council waited on the Prime Minister and six members of the Cabinet, and stressed, among other matters, the desirability of early planning of repatriation matters, including land settlement. Incidentally, at that deputation, a letter was read from Major-General Sir A. H. Russell, who stressed the advisability of earmarking suitable lands for soldier settlement and made an offer of a block of land, as a gift from himself, to “start the ball rolling." On August 14, Messrs B. J. Jacobs (Dominion vice-president) and C. W. Batten, of the Dominion executive committee, interviewed the Director of National Service (the Minister of National Service being alsc the Minister of Repatriation) and discussed repatriation with him.

The N.Z.R.S.A. was seized with the vital necessity of urgency and the importance of this subject, and it would be remembered that it was instrumental in having the Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment League set up. This organisation had afforded a concrete example of the possibility of utilising ■the remaining physical and mental ability of disabled ex-service men and the association had reason to believe that the facilities of the Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment League would be utilised in the scheme of repatriation for members of the New Zealand Forces now serving overseas.