AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25022, 2 November 1946, Page 2

AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL

SCHEME TO ENLARGE MUSEUM DISSATISFACTION OF R.S.A. (P.A.) AUCKLAND. November 1. Bitter criticism of the proposals of the Mayor of Auckland (Mr J. A. C. Allum) and the citizens’ committee to enlarge the war memorial museum at a cost of £350,000 was expressed by former servicemen at the quarterly meeting of the Auckland Returned Services’ Association.

The president (Mr A. P. Postlewaite) described the proposals as “straight-out prostitution of the memory of the fallen.” Mr K. C. Aekins, who submitted a motion which was carried unanimously. said: “It is time we took the gloves off. Does Mr Allum think he owns Auckland?”

The motion was: “That this general meeting of the Auckland Returned Services’ Association, with a membership of more than 17,000 men and women, reiterates the definite opinion that war memorials should not take the form of bricks and mortar but should be utilitarian It is our firm opinion, based on our intimate knowledge of the psychology of servicemen, that this would be the wish of the dead.

“We regard with utmost dissatisfaction and disgust the proposal to expend £350.000 in the enlargement of the existing war memorial museum when such a sum could be expended to practical .advantage for the benefit of disabled former servicemen and their dependants. We ask the Mayor to convene another meeting of representatives of all former servicemen and servicewomen and reform the committee, in which former servicemen will be fully represented.”