LETTER TO SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 200, 22 May 1944, Page 4

LETTER TO SOLDIER

Language The Point At Issue Replying to the statement, published on Saturday by Mr. F. Cornwell, secretary of the Federation of Labour, on the subject of the letter written by the New Zealand Dairy Factories Employees' Union to a soldier on furlough, demanding union dues, the editor of the. Returned Services Association “Review,” Mr. J. Morgan Davies, stated that it was a pity that Mr. Cornwell did not express the Federation of -Labour's disapproval of the remarks contained in the union secretary's letter to Trooper Sim when the federation was given the opportunity to do so by the N.Z.R.S.A. Had he done so. the Dominion executive committee would not have released the matter, for publication in the association’s official journal. The point at issue was not whether a serviceman on furlough should be expected to pay union fees so much as the offensive remarks levelled at the serviceman. It was idle for Mr. Cornwell to argue that the remarks were the exception rather than the rule. The inferences contained in the union secretary’s words affected every returned serviceman and were viewed very seriously by the “Review.” In the absence of assurance from the federation, the journal had been reluctantly compelled' to publish the letter as a means of ensuring that the excej> tion did not become the rule. “Review” accepted Mr. Cornwell’s belated disapprobation of the union secretary’s abusive remarks.