CO-OPERATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1919, Page 3

CO-OPERATION.

SIR ANDREW RUSSELL’S ADVICE.

WELLINGTON, November 12

Clad in brown mufti, bronzed, and looking much fitter than he was after wrestling with the problems of the Hindenburg line and the re-education, of the division near Cologne, MajorGeneral Sir Andrew Russell appeared to-day at the New Zealand Club luncheon to deliver a brief address. As he entered the room he was received with

hearty cheering. There were many present, no doubt, who expected to hear something about the -battles he had fought, but these did not know the soldier and man.

When lie rose to speak, the General turned the story neatly by remarking that this was one of the occasions when he could not do one’s job quietly, .and that he would much prefer to carry on in the old style. About the war itself he said practically nothing. He referred only to certain woll-reoognised principles in connexion with it, to point a moral in regard to work after the | war. There was one word, he said that j was a great deal used during the war, and that was the word “liaison.” It I meant knowing “what the man on the right and left of you were doing; in other words, that you should not live in watertight compartments.” The necessity for his was instanced in : business by a statement made to him a day or two ago by a high Government official, who said that one Department was .scrapping a large amount of material of very little value which another v'nonrtment was buying at a very high price. Intelligence which was of great value in the Arms', he continued, was also af value in business. There was in the Army and also with the units an intelligence officer who not only devoted his- attention to thinking out thg problems that were before him, but also the problems that might meet him on the morrow. The English people were great in action, though they did not like having to think, but that was one of the problems we now had to face in business, and certainly in Government. One of the why we were not always able to think things out was that we were often too busy attending to details. At the front they soon found out that no man could hold all the threads and they had to decentralise. They was equally true of a Government and of the ordinary business of life. Just as a. man in business often failed to take his employees sufficiently into their confidence. If we were to build .up the national store of capital we must have a common aim with our subordinates. Only by that means could we provide for the development of the future and for the increase of population that was necessary in New Zealand and in this development everyone must have his fair share in proportion to the work h e put into it. EVery man at the front knew that he had a share in the victory when it was won, and so it must be now. There were some among the employers and some among the workers who did not hold with that and so

vicious circle was created. It was necessary to break away from that if they were to defeat what most countries were threatened with, but it was not enough to defeat an idea. Having defeated it, we much supplant it with some other idea. We wanted that in this country, for we could never go hack to the old order. We had to- discover the idea, and in the search we must remember that nothing was good for the individual that was not good for the community a s a whole. ‘ At the conclusion of his address which was listened -to most attentively, the General was again heartily cheered.