|
Recently I have received letters and phone calls asking me why along with others, I formed the National Ex-Services Association. A reporter from the Daily Mail was one of those asking, and herewith is my reply to him and all others who are curious to know WHY.
Aims & History
Three years ago a small group of angry and disgruntled old soldiers were in agreement that the British Government should be held responsible for their lack of understanding and consideration shown toward their former service men and women. As a group we feel that the Government has let us down badly, just as earlier Governments, Conservative and Labour alike have done.
But don't get us wrong, we are not a group of moaners and whiners. We call ourselves patriots, and we are extremely proud to have served alongside this country's 14 million other ex-service people who rallied to Crown and country in two world wars and endless other world conflicts
We are proud too of our comrades who fell in the fight for freedom, and the many others who survived, some terribly injured in mind and body, and who today subsist shamefully, on charity. We are thoroughly fed up with politicians and bureaucrats who seem to have no time for people like us. We are determined to grab their attention. That is the reason why WE founded NESA News, to become the independent voice of former service people.
We no longer care if we are labeled "the awkward squad", for the sorry truth is that many of those who rule this country have a shameful record of ignoring former fighting men and women in time of peace. Look, for example, at the continuing struggle to obtain compensation for those who suffered at the hands of the Japanese. Look too at the fight for proper pensions, and the continuing battle for compensation for the victims of the Nuclear Tests Programm, and those suffering from Gulf War Syndrome, and the many, many others living in the shadow of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
It is our intention to serve notice on the powers-that-be, that we are no longer prepared to tolerate the casual disregard which successive Governments have had for those brave men and women of the past - and still today - who risk life and limb in the defense of the freedom and democracy, proudly won.
I was one of the lucky ones during the war - but it hardly seemed like it at the time. I served in the Far East and was captured by the Japanese when Singapore fell. I did my time in the notorious death camps, and was one of the slave laborers - matchstick men we were sometimes called - who built the Thai railway. Although it may sound exaggerated, I suffered from Malaria on 103 occasions, but somehow I survived. Fifty years on, I still have the recurring nightmares and bouts of depression, but I was helped back to health and sanity by my wife Dot.
I was able to work after leaving the army - I have done everything from acting as a quality controller supervising the loading and discharge of oil tankers around the world, to conducting private investigations. I earned my keep and paid my way, In retirement we can just about manage. Many who served - and slaved - like me were not so lucky. We in NESA are bitter that they are not given as a right the financial support they need. We are angry that brave men and women have to resort to charity, be it public or private, in order to survive.
Our little army have decided to have a go at changing the system which has let so many of us down so badly. The response from the top brass at the Ministry of Defense and from senior politicians has been depressingly predictable. We are told dismissively that there is no need for a further pressure group. But we have soldiered on. What exactly do we want?
First, a Minister for Ex Service Affairs, a member of the Cabinet whose task is not the Defense of the Realm but defense of those who have already served their country well. We need an advocate at the top of the table to argue for full pensions as a right, to end the shame of our old comrades having to rely on private charity or state handouts.
That is why one of our symbolic aims - and it is one which many people may at first find hard to understand - is to do away with Poppy Day in its present form. Of course we know that millions of people buy their poppies every November and wear them as a sign of solidarity and respect for those who fell and for those now in need, I do not disparage or reject their generosity of spirit But many service men and women find it humiliating that their standard of living depends on how much money can be raised by selling these artificial flowers. Why should men and women need to trawl the streets like beggars each year selling artificial flowers? It is also particularly degrading to know that those of our comrades who were physically or mentally injured fighting for their country have to earn a living making these artificial flowers. Surely in this technological world a more productive form of employment could be found.
We also wish to put right a curious omission. We have two minutes silence, plus the National Service of Remembrance which is always held in London, to remember our war dead, but nothing beyond the sale of poppies is done to acknowledge the contribution made by those men and women who completed their service without fuss and are still living today, or those who have since given loyal service to the country and Crown. Which is why NESA envisage a National Ex-Service Week, in which the country could register the debt it owes to the living as well as the dead.
I personally look forward to the time when, at the start of National Ex-Service Week, we can see those men and women who have served their country handing out free imitation flowers to passers by as a gesture of thanks to a society which has belatedly recognized former service men and women, and these same ex-service men and women have finally commenced to receive the justice and dignity they deserve without resorting to charity.
Charities are acknowledged by the British Government, in order to save them having to do the work themselves.
|
