ABOUT A MEETING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 7

ABOUT A MEETING

SERVICE AND POLITICS

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT *

The chairman of the Wellington sec-! tion of the New Zealand Public Service Association, Mr. J. P. Lewin, in a letter to "The Post," states that Mr. G. H: Mackley's remarks as reported on Saturday unaer the caption "No Politics" created a quite false impression concerning the meeting of public servants which a Minister of the Crown, according to Mr. Mackley, "endeavoured to cajole and encourage into joining the Federation of Labour." Mr. Lewin writes: "Mr. Mackley's remarks as far as I can judge could apply only* to one meeting of public servants —a meeting of Wellington public servants convened by the Wellington section committee in March of the present year for the purposes of hearing a speaker from the Federation of Labour and voting on a motion, 'That the Wellington section committee advise the national executive that Wellington members of the Public Service Association are. in favour of the association affiliating with the Federation of Labour.' This meeting was convened by the section committee in consequence of a decision of the 1943 annual conference of the Public Service Association that section committees be "asked to ascertain the minds of their members on the question of affiliation with the Federation of Labour and report back to the national executive of the association. The Wellington section committee, ■ which represents 7500 of he association's total membership of 22,000, considered that it could best ascertain the minds of Wellington members by calling a general meeting of members to hear a representative of the Federation of Labour. The Federation of Labour was invited to send a speaker to the meeting, and it ?ent its president, who happens also to be a Minister of the Crown. The suggestion that Mr. McLagan endeavoured to cajole and encourage Jhe meeting into affiliating with the Federation of Labour is quite false. Mis remarks were limited to explanation of the organisation of the Federation of Labour, about which he answered a number of questions, and it was after he had left the meeting that the motion referred to was moved by a member and discussed by the meeting. "Mr. McLagan came to give information at the request of the section committee, and he limited his remarks to that province. In conclusion, I would say that if politicians do not want politics in the Public Service they ought not to seek political capital in misrepresentation of the domestic business of an ■ organisation of public servants."