The Matter Will Be "Considered"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 181, 2 August 1941, Page 16

The Matter Will Be "Considered"

THE appalling exhibition of time-wasting by our Legislature in recent days must surely cause ex-servicemen, as also the country generally, the gravest concern. With the multitude and magnitude of problems facing us we have an undeniable right to expect something more in keeping with the demand these make.

By Trooper

We may well ask ourselves if our legislators can show such a fine disregard of the immediate present, what of those problems of the future? Many of them already loom large and are in need of being tackled resolutely and impartially. Can we have that measure of confidence that enables us to be satisfied that "the best will be done?"

Looking back over the years, few of us will cherish much hope of the purely party political machine functioning for much more than sectional interests. To say less than this would be but to evade actualities. We know that generally speaking those who served this country on the battlefield have received, too often, scant treatment. Were it not for our official organisation, the N.Z.R.S.A., standing watch and ward our interests could conceivably have been more neglected.

Those who have been members of deputations to Ministers of the Crown and members of Parliament, know only too well the almost invariable reply received to carefully considered and reasonable requests for something concerning the welfare of members of the organisation: "The matter will be considered." We have many matters that have become hardy annuals because of this. Were it not for that something which took us up Gallipoli's heights, across the Somme, Passchendaele. Messines and elsewhere, we might long, long ago have become discouraged. We will need all of that something that carried our new members through Greece. Crete, and who knows where else yet. to enable us to face the future—if we cannot devise some way of meeting that probable future. We have in the N.Z.K.S.A. one of the strongest organisations, numerically in New Zealand. That it will become much more so as this war wears on and reaches conclusion there is little

doubt. But under present conditions we are scarcely as effective as the smallest trade union. We are "nonparty political!" The politicians may listen to us, and do, very politely. But they have nothing to fear from us as an organisation. There is a growing dissatisfaction with this state of affairs, likely to become more pronounced as our membership increases from overseas. Can we do anything to meet these changing conditions?

Not for one moment do I advocate our organisation becoming a •'party" political machine. ,\Vc must be prepared to rise above "party - ' and put New Zealand and its people in the forefront, not favouring one section more than another. While we seek fair and reasonable consideration for those who have served in defence of the country, we must be prepared to look beyond them to the country as a whole, and through our collective vote, prevent any party which has been successful in gaining the Treasury Benches from neglecting its duty to that whole. And who will say that this is not our duty as well as our right?

As has been repeatedly .pointed out, the days aheau are grave ones. Change takis place overnight. What may have been considered sufficient to meet the need 25 years ago will not do now or in the future. To meet and prepare for the New Order in the British Empire, which we hope and believe must come into existence, the N.Z.R.S.A. must create the machinery for dealing with its share in it. If it does not we must remain content to hear "The matter will be considered," while others with no greater claim, play a part in shaping our destiny—perhaps not so wisely, and almost certainly in the interests of their own particular political party.