SOCIAL SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1939, Page 10

SOCIAL SECURITY

— INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFICERS. MR LYONS’S CHALLENGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 2. A charge that the Prime Minister had evaded the issue was made by Mr M. E. Lyons, National Party candidate for Christchurch South, when commenting on a statement made by Mr Savage in Christchurch yesterday. “I said that a set of instructions had been issued to officers of the Social Security Department, which, if published, would settle this election, and I challenged him to publish those instructions,” said Mr Lyons. “Now the Prime Minister has said that if I think there is anything questionable in the set of instructions I should publish them, and that my intelligence should tell me that' there are, many details and regulations connected with all Acts of Parliament that were not necessarily embodied in the Act itsalf. That is quite correct, but is not the point at issue at all. “I do charge the Government with the issue ’to officers of the Social Security Department of a set of instructions that are the very antithesis of a humanitarian of fair attitude to wouldbe recipients of the benefits. “I would gladly publish those instructions if Mr Savage will not sidestep, and will furnish me with a copy of them, or publish them in full himself. The public were led to believe that the sickness benefits would be liberally interpreted and applied. "Is Mr Savage game enough to order his officers to send me a copy of these instructions in order that they should be made known to the public?” asked Mr Lyons. “If the Prime Minister is not willing that these instructions be published, then he is adopting an attitude that is unjust and intolerable to all those who now are forced to pay into a contributory fund. The concealing of the administrative facts of the scheme is utterly unwarranted and, should the Prime Mihister refuse this request, deserves the sharpest censure.”