UNEMPLOYMENT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 153, 14 June 1932, Page 5

UNEMPLOYMENT

FRICTION IN NAPIER i MR A. E. BEDFORD RESIGNS. STATEMENTS OBJECTED TO. A difference of opinion between members of the Napier Unemployment Committee lias caused the resignation of Mr A. E. Bedford, the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board’s representative on that body. Mr Bedford advised the board yesterday of his action and Mr C. H. Williams was appointed the board’s representative on the committee. In informing the board of the step he had taken Mr Bedford said that he had written to the committee and the letter, which he submitted to the board meeting, he thought was self explanatory. • ‘ Uuf fortunately some nasty things have been said about the Red Cross Society,” stated Mr Bedford. ‘‘lt is not good. It is common talk in the town that if people go to the Red Cross they have to pay and I as chairman of the Red Cross must stand up for the society. There are other .matters, but I do not wish to refer to them now. I wish to have nothing further to do with the Unemployment Committee.” After the following letter from Mr Bedford had been read, Mr Williams was appointed to represent the board on the Committee: — MR BEDFORD’S LETTER. ‘‘At a meeting of the Napier Unemployment Committee on May 23 it was stated by several members that the Red Cross Society sold goods to people who were in need.

•‘You will remember that I gave this statement an emphatic denial and that Mr J. Vigor Brown, the president of the Napier branch of the society, upheld and supported the statements made.

“I now wish to repeat that not one penny piece has been asked or accepted for any article handed out by the society during my term of office as chairman, i.e. since June 27, 1931. I would point out that such statements are a grave reflection on the integrity of the secretary, and my committee and myself as chairman. “You as chairman of the meeting did not allow me the opportunity to state how the confusion might have arisen, and 1 do not now propose to do so, further than -to say that in the early days of the earthquake period, three committees, of which the Red Cross was one, were functioning under the one roof, viz., the Hawke’s Bay motor Company’s building. The earthquake Relief Committee did make a charge for clothing, etc., but the Red Cross never. 1 shall let it go at that COPY OF LETTTR FOR WELLINGTON. “During the years 1 have been associated with your committee I have done my best to help solve the difficult problems as they have arisen, but 1 cannot now see my way to continue to do so. “In fairness to Mr Tait, the secretary of the Red Cross Society in Napier, I am forwarding a copy of this letter to the general secretary of the Red Cross, at headquarters, Wellington. I consider it would be undignified on iny part to continue as a member of your committee to be subject to such mean and contemptible attacks.

“By resigning I shall be able to devote more of my time to charitabte work such as the Red Cross and other organisations of the kind. “As a protest against the indiscriminate statements made, I must now ask you to accept my resignation as a representative of the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board on your committee.”