RETURNED MEN'S VOTE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 127, 25 November 1935, Page 19

RETURNED MEN'S VOTE

PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT

The following statement was issued today by the president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association:— - ■ - •

'•'The attention of headquarters, N.Z.R.S.A., has been drawn to a circular issued by Mr. J. A. Lee, in collaboration with Messrs. W. J. Jordan and W. E. Barnard, exhorting returned soldiers to vote for the Labour Party at the forthcoming election. Headquarters regret that three ex-soldier members of Parliament should endeavour to seek the votes of returned soldiers for their particular party. Messrs. Lee, Barnard, and Jordan ought to know that by its constitution the N.Z.R.S.A. is a non-party political body. ••■ ■■ •'- ■ ■'-. ■

"There are ex-soldiers on both sides of the: House. The Minister of Finance, the Rt.. Hon. J.G. Coates, is an exsoldier. The only Country Party member- iri the' House, Captain H. M. Rushr worth, is an ex-soldier. Colonel J. Harges't and Messrs.-H. G. Dickie, W. P. Endean, and A. .M. Samuel are all exsoldiers. Individual ex-soldiers are standing for every party contesting this"election. As -far as we are aware, none of these ;have- circularised returned soldiers urging them to vote for' their particular party.

; "Headquarters-urges all ex-soldiers to preserve inviolate the principle that the N.Z.R.S.A.-is. strictly a non-party political organisation. The N.Z.R.S.A. objects to being exploited by any political party, be it National, Labour, or Democrat."-