SOCIAL SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1938, Page 4

SOCIAL SECURITY

ATTITUDE OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT NOT PROMISED. REPLY TO PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, July 1. A statement made on Wednesday by the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage in referring to the Social Security Bill that although the existence of friendly societies practically depends on the decisions the Government will make yet they have offered unconditional support in the launching of the scheme was referred to today by Mr A. G. Shrimpton, hon. secretary of the Dominion Council of Friendly Societies. He said the first intimation of the Press statement received by him was a telegram from an affiliated order in Christchurch requesting a contradition of the report, as societies in Christchurch were disturbed. He replied that the Dominion Council had made no offer to or received further information from the Government since the evidence was given before the Select Committee. The Press report of unconditional support was ridiculous. Mr Shrimpton went on to say that Mr Savage undoubtedly was interpreting liberally the attitude adopted by the Dominion Council’s representatives before the Select Committee in offering benevolent co-operation in the administration of proposals that might untimately emerge on the grounds that the skeleton proposals submitted for examination embodied in the main many of the objects of friendly societies and were thus an extension of their work. Possibly the Prime Minister’s choice of “unconditional” was at this stage a trifle extravagant in its committal of Mr Shrimpton himself and Mr Gregory, who presented the statement on behalf of the Dominion Council, especially in the absence of details of the scheme and their expressed hope that the Government did not intend the strangulation of friendly societies. A friendly society lodge was not a militant organisation and particularly eschewed all religious and political discussions. Had this not obtained the good they had accomplished and the duration of their existence would not been sustained. Last year was one of great activity throughout the movement and all orders made wonderful increases in membership, which in this country was still virile and a practical application of the spirit or brotherhood.