Volunteer service

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32562, 23 March 1971, Page 12

Volunteer service

Sir, —Dr Frederik Franklin’s implication that volunteer service in overseas countries is of primary benefit to the individual volunteer is

something with which very few returned volunteers would disagree. But that does not detract at all from the validity of such service, nor does it infer that volunteers can be of only minimal value to their country of service. V.S.A. volunteers are in each instance specifically reques. ted by some government or authority overseas, and there is no suggestion of their being foisted on to them as a means of solving problems of youth in New Zealand. Initially, the fact that volunteer schemes would be of mutual benefit, and the extent to which the volunteers themselves would benefit, were probably underestimated here. But the continuing, though changing demands for such volunteers suggests that overseas, too, a belief in the validity of schemes such as V.S.A. is still held—despite Dr Franklin’s opinions.— Yours, etc., D. S. GIBSON. March 22, 1971.

Sir, —In supporting the establishment in New Zealand of a scheme making a form of voluntary service an alternative to national military training Dr Franklin rather contradicts himself. Apart from the obvious inconsistency of a conscripted volunteer, Dr Franklin is opening the way to the “second-rate motivation” he legitimately decries in allowing involvement in volunteer service as an escape from something, rather than making it require a positive commitment. 1 warmly support his advocacy of a home service scheme, but consider that his sweeping generalisations on volunteer aid overseas overlook many , significant points. No country could afford to send enough people overseas to “solve Its youth problems”; few schemes, if any, exist to send “problem” youth. And no country is,obliged to accept volunteers unless it specifically wants them. On screening peoplie to go abroad may I hazard a guess that Dr Franklin knows nothing of the methods used in New Zealand?—Yours, etc., A. P. F. BROWNE. March 22, 1971.

Sir,—The Minister of Maori and Island Affairs, Mr Maclntyre, in a speech at Waikato University, recently made passing reference to the possibility of a New Zealand domestic volunteer scheme. Thus Doctor Franklin’s comments on the prevalence of such schemes overseas should be carefully noted, and the lead by the Minister followed up. Having had the personally rewarding experience of a year overseas with V.S.A., I would not be prepared to see it superseded entirely by a local scheme, but would hope that the principle of volunteering could first be established,, and then some form of integration, obscuring the differences between service at home and abroad, could be established. In the United States the Peace Corps has now been merged with an American domestic scheme, and, as Dr Franklin has pointed out, this seems to be an international tendency which New Zealand could well follow—Yours, etc., G. M. ABBOT. ■ March 22, 1971.