2 N.Z.E.F. Assn’s President Replies To Gen. Kippenberger

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 14, 1 November 1948, Page 5

2 N.Z.E.F. Assn’s President Replies To Gen. Kippenberger

Recent remarks on conscription made by Sir Howard Kippenberger, president of the R.S.A., at a reunion of the Invercargill body on October 14, were replied to by Mr Kenneth Melvin, Dominion president of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association. “Is it outrageous,” asked Mr Melvin, “that ordinary members of an ex-service body should be consulted on policy and given a democratic voice in its affairs? Apparently it is, for the General refuses to permit a referendum among R.S.A. members on the crucial issue of peacetime conscription and military service. There are new and modern ideas on defence, but not for the General. “Yet, adding omniscience to his other undoubted qualifies, Sir Howard said here in .Invercargill that he demands conscription with the backing of 90 per cent of his members. He may be correct, but thfe point is that the General rejects democratic consultation and commits his body by authoritarian methods. “In opposing peacetime conscription, the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association bases its policy upon-world authorities who view such elementary training as not only irrevelent in these days of warfare, but actually as conspiring against national prepai’edness and defence. We allow no one to outrun us in our concern for.the nation’s welfare.”