CIVIL SERVANTS AND POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 8

CIVIL SERVANTS AND POLITICS.

The legal restraints upon the political activities of civil servants are being removed by a Bill now before Parliament, and in theory their political rights will in future be no less than those of other citizens. The extra restraint imposed by the last Government during the abnormal period of 1932 undoubtedly induced a sense of grievance among many in the service, and its removal now is timely and wise. But despite Parliamentary rhetoric, there are practical limits to the political activities of civil servants, and these limits are recognised and observed by all but a small minority in the service. Though legal restraints are removed, the restraint of prudence and common sense must remain, and if it is not exercised the present Government will be obliged lo modify its present generous views. One test of the validity of those views, as of the earnestness with which the Government holds tliem, will come if some members of the Civil Ser vice should publicly espouse the cause of the present Opposition in the same circumstances and in the same manner as some supported the Labour Party when it was in Opposition.