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Western Mail, Thursday, 7 November 1929, p. 2.
Our Blind Comrades.
Of interest to diggers was the Federal conference of blind soldiers held in Perth last week. Two delegates each from Victoria, "Queensland, South Australia and, Western Australia attended and they discussed questions of particular importance to our unfortunate comrades who suffered the war's greatest disability, loss of sight. That their deliberations will result in the betterment of their circumstances in life, and greater opportunities for their families, will be earnestly hoped for by returned soldiers. There is this to be said of the delegates that their loss of eyesight does not appear to have depressed them or given them a hopeless outlook on life. Indeed, they impressed by their optimism and by their determination to do something for themselves and their dependants. The loss of one faculty has sharpened others. Their ability to recognise individuals by the voice after one introduction was wonderful. Incidentally their keen sense of humour, expressed on numerous occasions during their stay in Perth, proved that they had by no means lost the joy of living. To meet more blind boys of ours was to be inspired with the conviction that man, the trier, can rise superior to any adversities ordained by Fate.