Home Front and Repatriation

At home the Government had to deal with problems of finance, supply, and training on an unprecedented scale. Over £80,000,000 was raised, within New Zealand and abroad, to carry on the War. Naturally there were increases in taxation. But the Government soon found it neces­sary to control the whole economic life of the country; it regulated both imports and exports and entered into agreements with the United Kingdom covering the disposal of the export surpluses of the main primary products. The National Efficiency Board carried out important work in the supervision of industry. Various voluntary organisations gave unselfish service for the com­fort and welfare of the troops. Voluntary contributions to the War and War charities totalled £6,481,002 up to 31^st March 1920. To Belgian relief New Zealanders contributed £453,598 and £90,953 to other allied countries.

Training of troops for service overseas was carried out in four main camps. Some of the best officers were retained in New Zealand for the essential tasks of training, and later in the War British and New Zealand officers who had been invalided out of active service took part in train­ing men. Training was brought to a high state of efficiency in New Zealand, and was continued in Egypt and in Britain.

New Zealanders won 5,670 British decorations and over 200 foreign decorations. Eleven members of the New Zealand forces were awarded the Victoria Cross. They were C. R. G. Bassett, S. Frickleton, L. W. Andrew, J. Crichton, H. J. Laurent, J. G. Grant, R. S. Judson, D. F. Brown, H. J. Nicholas, R. C. Travis, and S. Forsyth. More­over, five New Zealanders serving with other branches of the forces also received this honour— W. E. Sanders, B. C. Freyberg (who to-day com­mands the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force), A. J. Shout, P. V. Stbrkey, and T. Cooke. But the war effort of this country need not be measured only in terms of decorations won, though none of these was won without being more than earned, for it is better assessed by the reputation of the New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, in Flanders and in Palestine, a reputation not least acknow­ledged by the German High Command which con­sidered the New Zealand troops ‘ a particularly good assault division.’

After the War the Government handled the problems of repatriation of the Returned Soldier with considerable vigour, spending or lending a total of £30,000,000 on the various forms of this enterprise. The most comprehensive scheme for the re-absorption of the soldier into the economic life of the country was that for settlingreturned soldiers on the land. But in the depres­sion of later years it became plain that the high capital value placed on the land allotted to these men was in many cases an obstacle to success, and considerable sums have since been written off in reduction of their obligations. Disabled soldiers and the dependents of soldiers killed in the War have been awarded pensions. The high standing in the community of the Returned Soldiers organisations is the measure of the esteem and gratitude of the New Zealand people for those who defended them in this world struggle.