WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1922, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE POST AND TELEGRAPH ■* DISPUTE. OFFICIAL ORGAN SPEAKS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, June 9. A lengthy article dealing with the dispute between the Government and the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association, arising out of the proposal of the Association to affiliate with the Alliance of Labor, appears in the current number of the Katipo. The writer starts out with the good intention, apparently, of satisfying his readers that the public would have nothing to fear from the biggest branch of the Civil Service allying itself with the “one big union” which aspires to shaping the economic destiny of the country. If the Alliance were involved in industrial strife, he says, it would become the duty of the Government to keep a close eye upon the officers who had given in their allegiance to that body, but the Association could not become an active participant in the trouble till a postal ballot had been taken and three-fifths of the valid votes had been cast “in favor of meeting the call.” From this he argues that the three-fifths majority would be obtained “only if an apparent injustice were being imposed on the organisation or organisations,” and then that it would become the duty of the Government to intervene as the place of the Government is always in opposition to injustice. WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN. There is a suspicion of humor running through this specious argument which is not lessened when the writer, having demonstrated the impossibility of the post and telegraph officers going out on strike or neglecting their dutyin a single particular, proceeds to present a case in which active resistance would be inevitable. “In such a disi pute as that,” he says, referring to a difference of opinion over salaries, “the necessities of members’ own dependents would be the deciding factor and where their necessities press heavily they have to recognise a higher claim than even that of their employers, the Government of the moment.” And again. “In such a pass,” he adds, after mentioning the possibility of a decent living wage being directly or indirectly attacked, “no Government can reasonably expect that steps will not be taken to protect or safeguard what is threatened.” Language of this kind is altogether inconsistent with professions of devotion to constitutional methods, and these covert threats of a resort to brute force are bound to estrange much sympathy from the Association. The community cannot be expected to contemplate with equanimity the prospect of the staff of a great State Department joining hands with the Alliance of Labor in an attack upon constituted authority. SALARY CUT. The fact that there is a movement among a large section of the members of the Civil Service to renew the pro test against the salary cut may have had something to do with the militant tone of the article appearing in the official organ of the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association. It is reported that the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the Public Service Association and the Railway Officers’ Institute have joined hands with the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association in this matter and that a conference between these bodies will be held shortly to decide upon a definite line of action. Of course the claim of the Civil Service to a review of the position has been much strengthened by the Arbitration Court’s pronouncement in regard to reduction in the cost of living and by the Government Statistician’s figures bearing on the same subject. The Government cannot fail to take these matters into consideration, and there will be no need to attribute any concessions it may make to the approach of the general election; but the aggrieved Civil Servants will gain nothing in sympathy from the general public by threatening to demand their rights at the point of the bayonet. “y SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. Though the exceptionally good season and the firming of ) .ices have done much to lessen the tribulations of the soldier settlers on dairy land, the men still have many difficulties to overcome. These were related in some detail by Mr. A. E. Fear, the organising secretary of the Dairy Farmers’ Union, at the sitting of the Dominion Council of the Returned Soldiers’ Association last week with a view to obtaining the assistance of the Association in securing further concessions from the Government. Mr. Fear made out a very .8 strong case for his clients, and Sir Andrew Russell, the president of the Association, promised it would have the very careful consideration of the Council; but it is not thought probable the Government will be moved to further j action. Ministers have reiterated again during the last few months that they already have made the way of the soldier settler as easy as the finances of the country will permit. .