FRIENDLY SOCIETIES' DEPUTATION

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 84, 8 April 1916, Page 9

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES' DEPUTATION

10 THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln the report of the Friendly Societies' deputation to the Hon. Mr. Russell and the Hon. Mr. Hanan appearing in your columns the other evening, the Hon. Mr. Hanan, in the course of his reply, is reported as saying, "that evidently the doctors wished to sell their labour in the dearest market, a,nd that there was no law to compel them to do otherwise, and, further, he would not get any legislation passed in that direction." Now, Sir, t-o my mind the hon. gentleman missed the argument of the speakers, as, so far as I could see, there was no suggestion that -•■*jM,,dpctor^ J .sbo^.i^cpm^Hcj^LfcaiJfc, ;

tend Friendly Society members on their own terms made by any member of the deputation. The deputation went to the Ministers not to ask for compulsion to attend on the doctors' part, but to try and get some measure of relief from the intimidatory tactics adopted by a section of the Wellington Branch of the B.M.A. They asked for assistance in procuring doctors from America, as the local doctors had resigned. The doctoia not only resigned, but a section used such bullying methods with a doctor who had been engaged and thought the remuneration adequate, as to force him to break his agreement with the societies. That, Sir, is the point of the deputation's argument that, I think, the ton. gentleman overlooked. I will cite a parallel case, and the different ways they were met is most illuminative, as showing a different law for a different class. Some little time ago a strike occurred, and the employing bodies concerned, after trying to come,to an agreement with the men, decided to get other men who were willing to do the work. The result is well known: the men who would not work interfered with the men who were satisfied to work, the specials were Brought in, and the nonworker was batoned if he interfered with a worker. To carry the parallel to its natural sequence, Mr. Hanan should have said, "If the B.M.A. interfere with any free doctors, we will have to get the specials to baton them." The Hon. Mr. Russell, in the course of his reply, commended the work of the medical profession in this time of national stress, a remark everyone will heartily endorse, but the medical profession has not got a monopoly of national service rendered; there are hundreds, aye, and thousands of Friendly Society members serving at Home and abroad, many married or with widowed mothers to support, etc. Yet this is the time chosen to impose a further burden on their dependents. I am afraid their patriotism is measured by their pockets. Of course, it is well known that all the members of the B.M.A. do not see eye to eye in this matter, and it is a pity that the more moderate section cannot influence the militant section to be more discreet, and not use methods which were so strongly disapproved in this ■ country a while back. Trusting wiser counsels will prevail, —I am, etc., PLAY THE GAME. Wellington South.