POLITICAL PURPOSES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 195, 15 May 1941, Page 10

POLITICAL PURPOSES

Home Guard And E.P.S. COUNCIL REFERENCE The recent statement by the Minister of National Service, Mr. Semple, concerning reports that endeavours had been made to use the Home Guard and E.P.S. for political purposes was referred to by the Labour mayoral candidate, Cr. McKeen, M.P., at a meeting of tiie Wellington City Council yesterday. Cr. McKeen said he had read the report of a recent speech by the mayor, Mr. Hislop, to the Home Guard and there was no word in it one could take exception to. He had, however, been approached by a number of members of the Home Guard who had expressed resentment at efforts which had been made by some individuals in the guard and the E.P.S. to use them for the present election. Mr Hislop said he was in complete agreement with the general principle of the Minister’s statement. “Whether anybody has made any suggestion I have endeavoured to influence members of either organization in a political way, I do not know,” Mr. Hislop said. "But if anybody has made that suggestion, he has made one that is completelv and utterly untrue. Mr. Hislop said that from the very beginning of the E.P.S. he had addressed meetings, attended group gatherings and done everything possible to help the movement. He made no apologies whatever for his address to members of the E.P.S. on the one day he had free recently on matters of vital importance to them and the public of ’Wellington. He would not be influenced bv political interests or the fact of whether or not an election might be imminent in doing a job which it was his lob to do to help this organization in the interest of the lives and safety of the community as a whole. It was unfair to suggest that his work m this connexion was dictated by political motives.