Public Service and Legion

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 May 1933, Page 7

Public Service and Legion

DE. CAMPBELL BEGG’S COMMENT MASTEETON, Last Night. A statement published in a Wellington paper that the Public Service Commissioner had stated that no public servant would be permitted to join tin New Zealand Legion was referred to to-night by Dr. Campbell Begg, president of the Legion. Dr. Begg said he was anxious to have the position cleared up at' once. He had no doubt that the National Council of the Legion would consider the position earnestly and with the full consideration of the Government’s point of view, and if satisfied that objection to civil servants joining the movement was based on solid grounds would form an auxiliary in which there could be no possible objection to membership. The Legion’s position would undoubtedly be (1) that the undoubted rights of civil servants should not be interfered with; (2) that the country should •not be deprived of the constructive thought which existed in the civil service and which might find no effective channel at present;' (3) that nothing ■should be- done to undermine the zeal and loyalty of public servants to the State but rather that it should be fostered. Eeccnt history had produced examples in which suspicion arose that in certain countries the Government in power might attempt to use the public service and its vote to strengthen their own position. He felt certain that this danger had only to be mentioned to let those in power in New Zealand see how imperative it was to make clbar their attitude in the matter so that no action however well conceived in itself should be open to false interpretation by those most concerned.