A RETROGRADE STEP

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

A RETROGRADE STEP

ACCORDING to a statement made at a social evening last week by a Digger who has just returned from the Middle East, a vote was taken on the homeward journey by the returning contingent on the question whether the men of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. should form a new R.S.A. or add their weight and strength to the organisation now in existence and that has championed the cause of the jreturned men for the past 23 years. The result of the vote, according to this Anzac, was overwhelmingly in favour of alliance with the present R.S.A. and against forming a new association.

Reports from overseas tell of a movement, not apparently very strong, in the direction of a new R.S.A., but it is hoped that such an idea will not materialise. It would surely be ludicrous and pitiful to establish another organisation on a Dominion-wide footing for doing just what has been the aim of the present body. Apart from the unnecessary expense and wasteful energy expended, there would be the impossible position of one set of returned soldiers lighting for certain rights for its members and another doing probably the same thing, or probably something entirely different, in the supposed interests of its adherents. The possibilities seem almost too Gilbertian to consider seriously. Remedy Is Easy

If there is any fault with the present constitution of the R.S.A., or if it is felt that remodelling is necessary in the light of modern conditions, then the remedy is easy, and there could be no objection to the infusion of new blood into its direction. No doubt it would be welcomed, but to launch out into a new organisation for exactly the same objective—to fight for the best conditions for the men who have fought in their Empire's cause—would get

nowhere and would only result in disunity and failure. Strength in numbers and influence is likely to be much more efficacious than divided forces, and it is gratifying that so far quite a number of Diggers of the modern vintage have seen the wisdom of this. There are no indications that the attempt to form a 2nd N.Z.E.F. Returned Soldiers' Association has made any progress.