POWER BOARD

Grey River Argus, 18 April 1940, Page 3

POWER BOARD

Reprimands Officer FOR PACIFIST ACTIVITIES. CHRISTCHURCH, April 17. After a discussion in committee at its meeting in Rangiora yesterday, the North Canterbury Electric Power Board decided to “severely reprimand’’ a member of its stall for the part he had taken in the activities of the Rangiora branch of the Peace Pledge Union. The decision was announced by the chairman (Mr. A. Cowie) in open meeting.

Discussion arose from a , letter from the Rangiora County . Council asking what disciplinary action the board ..proposed to take . against any member of its staff taking part in. pacifist activities. The letter said that the subject came up when members of the council referred to the fact that, at a Peace Pledge Union meeting in Rangiora, one member of the board’s staff, the local secretary of the pacifist organisation, took an i active part. Reporting the decision of the board, the chairman said that the member of the staff referred to was Mr. H. R. Ellis. “He will be severely reprimanded by the board for his actions,” Mr. Cowie said. Mr. Cowie added that, at a meeting on April 5, members of the board’s staff had agreed to make regular voluntary contributions to the National Patriotic Fund, the amounts to be deducted from their pay envelopes each pay day. That would prove that the board’s staff .as a whole was very loyal and patriotic. Portions of a statement addressed to the chairman by the engineersecretary (Mr. A. Buckingham) were also released for publication. In it, Mr. Buckingham said that the loyalty of the board’s staff generally was above reproach. He referred to the decision of the employees to make contributions to the National Patriotic Fund and said that naturally members of the staff now felt aggrieved that, because of the recent publicity, they had to suffer a stigma which was most undesirable and undeserved. “The board’s staff therefore trust that, if any further publicity .is given to the matter, their loyalty and their recent action will be given equal publicity,” the statement concluded. '