The Press MONDAY, JULY 24, 1933. Light on the Legion.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20915, 24 July 1933, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, JULY 24, 1933. Light on the Legion.

For some months the country has been watching the activities of the New Zealand Legion with an interest tinged at times with bewilderment and even anxiety. Most people, while willing to admit that the legion's main objectives were admirable, have felt uneasy over the methods to be followed in attaining those objectives. The outline of the legion's provisional programme, printed on Saturday, and Dr. Campbell Begg's explanatory statement, printed this morning, go a long way, though not the whole way, towards dispelling doubt and suspicion. It is clear, for instance, that the charge that the legion is a thinly-disguised Fascist organisation has no foundation. Its constitution and its methods are democratic; and its programme of governmental reform aims at increasing the powers of elected representatives. Equally unfounded is the charge that the legion is a reactionary organisation, in the field of economics as well as of government it seems determined to go boldly forward. But the question still to be answered is how the legion proposes to carry through its programme. Indirectly, of course, it can and probably will do much to bring about governmental and administrative reforms by creating an enlightened and active public opinion. Public administration in New Zealand is wasteful and inefficient largely because, even at the present time, most New Zealanders know little and care less about the problems of government. The legion is attempting, to quote a phrase used by Dr. Campbell Begg" recently, "to turn the country into " one great commission of enquiry."

If it makes even a littie progress in this educative task it will accomplish great good. But what other methods, beyond those of propaganda and education, does the legion contemplate? It is not, its leaders have asserted, a political party; but it clearly intends to intervene in elections and possibly run its own candidates. The intention is, apparently, to seek pledges from candidates put forward by other parties. It can be said at once that the practice of seeking to pledge candidates, however worthy the motives behind it, inevitably confuses political issues and encourages chicanery. Sooner or later the legion will have to face the fact that it cannot intervene in elections without becoming in effect a political party; and at the moment the creation of another political party would be an evil. Fortunately, however, the legion seems to be moving cautiously and discreetly; and it seems possible to hope that, when the time for an election draws near, it will realise its responsibilities. There is no need at this stage to discuss the provisional programme issued after the meeting last week. Some of it is sound sense, some of it is fantastic, and some of it runs hopelessly counter to the general tendency in all countries to strengthen the executive power. When the various proposals have been chewed over by the local branches and finally revised it will be possible to judge whether the legion is as practical as it is well-intentioned and energetic.