P. AND T. SPLIT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 70, 19 September 1930, Page 10

P. AND T. SPLIT

GUILD MOVEMENT

"A VAGUE PROPOSITION"

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

INVERCABGILL, This Day.

The action of what was described as "a small coterie of senior officers in the Post and Telegraph Department in Wellington" in seeking to form a separate guild distinct from the existing Post and Telegraph Officers' Association was strongly attacked by Mr. J. H. M'Kenzie, general secretary of the association, at the annual reunion of the Southland Association. Mr, M'Kenzie praised the senior officers of the Southland Association for refusing to be led away by the guild promoters.

Mr. M'Kenzie said that the Southland branch was outstanding in its general atmosphere of confidence and absenco of complaints. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of all tho other centres, and one of tho recent effects had been seen in the attempt that was being made to split the unity of their association by the formation of a guild exclusively for controlling officers. No one seemed to know the origin of this movement, who were tho prime movers in it, or what was hoped to bo achieved by the guild that could not be done through the present association. It was a very vague proposition altogether, and senior officers were being asked to accept it on trust in this form simply because it was being organised by the more senior officers of certain centres, notably Wellington.

SOUTHLAND STANDS ALOOF,

If; was to the credit of the Southland officers that they had done their own thinking in regard to this matter, and the guild had received no support outside Southland. It had been said that the chief postmaster . and his chief officials had influenced this decision, but the speaker said his inquiries showed that sub-officers had received notice of the movement and had decided their attitude towards it before hearing from the chief office. The value of the decision given was enhanced by the independent nature of its consideration, and for the further reason that Southland members had so clearly pointed to the correct constitutional procedure in such matters. What was wanted was tolerance and co-operation instead of intolerance and disintegrating motives, which appeared to be actuating certain originators of the guild movement. There had been early indication of such motives, but they had been largely counteracted as prospective members commenced to think the movement out for themselves. Recently, the originators in Wellington, apparently conscious of the growing desire to maintain unity, had made an application to the PostmasterGeneral for recognition of the guild as a separate entity. "Just fancy," said Mr. M'Kenzie, "before the proposed constitution had been generally considered, much less endorsed, and before a mandate had been given from a representative conference to form a guild, a little coterie in Wellington had gone to the Minister with a matter that had not yet emerged from the realms of the domestic business of the association itself." Practically all of the prospective membership of the guild was at present in membership of the association, and it was more than passing strange to reflect that unconstitutional action by a small minority was centred amongst those whose departmental duties called for the observance, and the exacting of it in others, of constitutional procedure and adherence to rules in their every-day work. ' AN ATTACK RESENTED. Concluding, Mr. M'Kenzie said there was only one aspect of the matter that caused him any resentment, and that was in the attack which the movement had consituted on the executive committee of the association. The nine officers forming that executive were all controlling officers of the Department, men who were giving unsparingly of their time, energy, and ability in an honorary capacity for the general cause of their fellow-officers, and how could it be saia that they, controlling officers themselves, had failed to serve the controlling officer section of the membership? If there had been shortcomings they had been entirely due to individual or sectional neglect by iriembers themselves. He again thanked Southland for its clear perception of the whole situation and its solid support of the elected executive.