POLITICAL ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 262, 5 November 1931, Page 21

POLITICAL ACTION.

WARNING BY POSTMASTER

" DEATH-KNELL OF ASSOCIATION."

"The day you embark upon political action will sound the death-knell of your association," said Mr. W. P. Aldridge, Chief Postmaster at „Timaru, at the annual reunion of the South Canterbury branch of the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association. "I was a member of the association, but, along with many other officers, I left when the members decided to affiliate with the Alliance of Labour.

"If you want to ruin your association, go in for politics, but do not take this step if you wish to retain that good feeling and high regard in which you are. held by the public. Everyone has his vote, but as soon as you ally yourselves with politicians and parties, you are doomed. We are only a small portion of this community, and we would have the people against the Department."

Mr. C. A. Wilkes, a member of the Dominion executive of the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association, speak, ing earlier in the evening, said that some form of arbitration to remove the service from political control was desirable, and had operated successfully in many other countries. The policy of the association would be to take political action with financial support, with a view to securing a political party which would remove the service from political control altogether. ; <