The Dominion SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1922. A DANGEROUS PROPOSAL

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 154, 25 March 1922, Page 8

The Dominion SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1922. A DANGEROUS PROPOSAL

Although it was announced some time ago that the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association intended to take a ballot of its members on the question of affiliating with the Alliance of Labour, no public statement on the subject has yet been made by the Postmaster-Gen-eral or any other Minister of the Crown. This silence can only mean that the Government assumes that the good sense of Post and Telegraph Department employees will induce them to reject a proposal which is not only incompatible with their conditions of employment, but is in direct conflict with the loyalty they owe to the State and the community. Probably this assumption does no more than justice to the officers in question. It is as well, however, that the facts of the position should: be set in the clearest possible light. A moment’s consideration of the relationship in which the officers of the Post and Telegraph .Department stand to the, public will show that it is ’’impossible to tolerate an arrangement under which they would become members of an outside Labour organisation of revolutionary aims. The Post and Telegraph Department exists to serve all sections of the community in conditions of guaranteed good faith and security. It is continually dealing on a confidential basis with tho private affairs of individuals, and the strictest probity and loy-

alty are necessarily demanded of its officers. The Post Office exists as a State institution to serve and safeguard the interests of the whole population. Its fundtions could not be performed efficiently if it did not possess a disciplined and loyal staff. This indispensable condition plainly would not be satisfied if its employees linked up with an organisation which exists to stir up sectional animosities, and at any time might cal! upon the whole of its members to engage in a general strike. Affiliation with the Alliance of Labour manifestly would amount to nothing less than an express repudiation by the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department of the duty they owe to the Government and the community. Apart from its vital bearing on public interest, mich an affiliation would directly undermine the position of special privilege these officers, in common with other State servants, occupy in comparison with workers in private employment. The employees of the. Post and Telegraph Department are members of a classified staff possessed of superannuation and other benefits. They have their own Appeal Board to redress individual grievances, and have a recognised right of direct approach to the Government and Parliament where general claims are concerned. The total effect <jf these privileges is to give the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department a position of advantage and security and to relieve them of any necessity of seeking concession or advantage by the methods favoured by some out side Labour organisations.

The considerations which have been briefly touched upon would b® of conclusive weight even if the Alliance of Labour were an industrial organisation committed to constitutional methods and pursuing constitutional aims. In actual fact, however, the Alliance has no claim to be rated in this category. Its character and aims are indicated in 'an article by its secretary (Mr. J. Roberts), which appeared in the Maoriland Worker in December last. That article Was avowedly an attempt “to explain fully the objective, methods pf organisation, and economic possibilities of the New Zealand Alliance 'of Labour, otherwise the 0.8. U. (One Big Union), organised along the lines of class and industry.” Mr. Roberts made it clear that he regarded the organisation of the Alliance of Labour as a step towards a state of affairs in which industries would bo controlled “by the workers who operate them',” and the present Parliament elected by the.people would be replaced by “a National Industrial Parliament representing all the industries.” In other words, a form of the Soviet system which has reduced Russia to ruin and her people to starvation. It does not in the slightest degree affect the overwhelming objections that are to be raised to the affiliation of the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association with the Alliance pf Labour that the ultimate aims of the latter organisation are never likely to be allowed in this country to reach the stage of practical expression and development. Obviously there cannot be any question of permitting State employees on which the Government and the community in ■an exceptional degree depend for loyal service to become members of an organisation which aims at substituting Soviet rule—a tyranny of industrial oligarchies—for free democracy. A wrong was done to the community when the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants was permitted to affiliate with the Alliance of Labour. A greater and more serious wrong would be involved in allowing Post Office employees to follow this bad example. It may be hoped that the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department will themselves freely recognise the actual bearing of a proposal which is definitely opposed to their own interests as well as to those of the public.