Old soldiers dying breed, says P.M.

Press, 12 June 1984, Page 4

Old soldiers dying breed, says P.M.

PA Wellington Old soldiers were a diminishing and dying breed, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, told the New Zealand Returned Services Association annual conference in Wellington yesterday. “We are at an age when we become aware that we are not immortal after all,” said Sir Robert, who served in World War 11. “The media remind us of this by telling us that by the year 2001, there will be only 31,200 ex-servicemen left; by 2031, only 50 very old men, I should think. By 2036 we shall all be gone.” Membership figures cited in the R.S.A.’s annual report supported Sir Robert’s statement. The number of returned servicemen stood at 76,791

last year, compared with 77,654 in 1982 and 80,613 in 1981.

Total membership figures, including service members, totalled about 107,000, the Dominion president, Sir William Leuchars, said. Sir Robert said he was not being morbid by saying old soldiers were literally a dying breed. “The point of my raising the matter is that we are rapidly coming to the time when the future role of the R.S.A. will have to be considered.” He said later that promoting a sense of nationhood could be an important future role. “Some of my opponents are not very bright and I would not want to embarrass them by having them

criticise on the basis of a misunderstanding. “I am not speaking about old fashioned nationalism. I am not advocating that we separate ourselves from the rest of the world and develop some kind of master race ideal. “What I am speaking about is our sense of identity as New Zealanders, our sense of being a nation in a community of nations.” He would not advocate that the R.S.A. embark on political activism. “Yes, there are problems. We have minority cultures, we have dissident groups. We have activists of one sort or another. We even have some people whose loyalties lie elsewhere. But all these make the need for a sense of nationhood all the more imperative.”