WHO SHOULD SERVE?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 120, 7 February 1940, Page 8

WHO SHOULD SERVE?

PROBLEMS OF ENLISTMENT EXTERNAL VERSUS INTERNAL SERVICE In its endeavour to keep an essential public service working at normal pressure and acting in all good faith and in what it believed to be the best interests of the community, the Auckland City Council has found itself in rather a quandary, says the Board and Council Review. At a special meeting recently a resolution was passed that formal application be made to the Placement Officer at Auckland, that essential workers at the Municipal abattoirs should be placed on the same footing as freezing workers and debarred from militarj' service. As a consequence, deep resentment was felt among the workers concerned; so much that a stopwork meeting Avas held and the men unanimously passed a resolution of protest at the council's decision and a deputation Avas appointed to take up the matter with the Council. The meeting contended that other works were killing for export AA'hereas the abattoir AA'as killing for local consumption only. Many of the export men Avere over military age and it Avas considered that 75 per cent of the men "on the chain" had to be broken in every season. The men claimed that although the present time Avas the peak of the season, at the end of March men AA r ould drift back to public Avorks jobs, and next season another team Avould have to be broken in. At Variance. Finding itself at such A r ariance Avith the Avorkers, the Council has taken the Avorkers' personal feelings into consideration and has since rightly agreed that any member of the Council's staff aa t lio desires to join the forces be granted the necescarv leave of absence; that it be left to the proper authority to decide Avhether his services shall be accepted, and that any application made for exemption be withdraAvn. This decision Avas made Avitliout rescinding the former motion Avhich Avas stated to Iwe been purely informal. The position of the Auckland City Council and other bodies, is unfortunate, Under the enlistment it is completely a personal matter Avhether men enlist or not. That point had to be observed by the Council, but then again there Avas the question of maintaining the municipal abattoirs, Avhieh are considered to be necessary to the community as a Avliole. If the men avlio hold the key positions enlist, what is to become of these essentials? Perhaps these men can better serve their country by retaining their ciA'il positions if, by so doing, the welfare of the people is the better upheld. 4 _ Key Positions. At this juncture there arises a mat ter very much discussed of late and that refers to the definition of "key positions." What exactly are key positions? Local bodies are asking the question throughout the- Dominion, but no one seems to understand the position fully regarding essential occupation and the question appears to remain unanswered at present. Is it any AA r onder, then, thai: the City Council and perhaps not a feAv others are at loggerheads Avith their Avorkers. The Auckland Municipal Abattoir workers maintain that they are Avithin their rights to contend that their Avork can be carried on at its normal pace by men avlio are ineligible for military service. In this instance perhaps this contention is correct up to a point, but it cannot apply in many other parts of the country. Take the farmers. There has meen much controA*ersy as to Avhether farm Avorkers are in key positions and Avhether or not the3 r should be accepted for military service. Surely the production of food for Britain is the greatest serA'ice New Zealand can giA'e. and thai definitely cannot be accomplished if the farm workers enlist. It is absolutely essential that their services be retained Avherever possible. Take again the highly trained man. technical or otherwise. All the essential, commodities require 'he services of properly qualified men if they are to be efficiently carried on. Numbers of these men are quite eligible to enlist, but could the}' not be of greater service to their country if they remained in their civil situations? What good Avill they be if they enlist for . overseas service Avhen perhaps at some later date their Avide know(Continued foot previous column)