RAILWAY STAFF

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 225, 21 June 1939, Page 11

RAILWAY STAFF

Christchurch Action Not Approved By Executive

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT

The report from Christchurch published yesterday that a. special meeting had been called of the Railway Officers Institute because of resentment among the first division staff of the Railways Department in Christchurch over the interrogation of some of the members about anonymous correspondence in the Press, was referred to by the president of the Railway Officers’' Institute, Mr. E. W. Barnes, in an interview last evening. He said that so far as he was concerned the proposed meeting and Press publicity was untimely and ill-advised and had not had the approval of the executive committee. Obviously there were two sides to every question and the executive committee desired to give full consideration to both sides before committing itself to any line of action, said Mr. Barnes. The North Canterbury branch recently forwarded particulars of the matter to the committee and this body took appropriate action. “In the meantime,” said Mr. Barnes, “Mr. J. S. Roscoe, as secretary of the North Canterbury branch, sent full reports to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Railways, but before the Prime Minister had an opportunity of dealing with the matter it would appear that the meeting had been called and the Press publicity undertaken. It is obvious that the Minister of Railways could not be aware of what had taken place and the present action of the North Canterbury branch could only be regarded as embarrassing to the Minister and to the Government, and, in my opinion, is not in the. best interests of the members of the institute.” ______