"IRRESPONSIBLES" AND DOUGLAS CREDIT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4771, 12 November 1935, Page 4

"IRRESPONSIBLES" AND DOUGLAS CREDIT.

( To the Editor). Sir, —When asked for his opinion of Douglas Social Credit at Aria last Monday week!, Mr. Broadfoot scathingly condemned the sponsors of that movement, asserting that all that the Social Credit movement had accomplished was to "separate the respohsibles from the irresponsibles," and in subsequent remarks applied the latter epithet to the adherents of the Social Credit doctrine. One can excuse much of an angry politician when "on the mat" before his constituents, but to describe in such derisive terms that large body of thinking men and women who have been responsible for the rapid growth of the Social Credit movement, is decidedly not expected of a people's representative. It would doubtless not interest Mr. Broadf oot to know that among the sponsors of the Social Credit ■movement abroad are besides its founder, the celebrated Major C. H. Douglas—such men as the Marquis of Taverstock and Lord Semple, while in this country leading citzens in all.;walks of life have subscribed to its? principles. In all the circumstances it is not strange that among the: most ardent advocates of the social;movements in New Zealand are soldiers of the late war. Brigadier-General Sir Andrew Russell, Captain H. M. Rushworth, Colonel S. J. E. Closey, and many others from officers of rank to private soldiers are leaders in the great army of its promoters. These soldiers of the Empire, whom this country should revere as its saviours, are designated among thousands of others, by Mr. Broadf oot as '-■ "irresponsibles." We of this post-war generation have a wholesome regard for those of the older generation who seek to improve the conditions of life for those who come after them, and we have the most profound respect for the men, who in the years of bur childhood offered their lives as a sacrifice on the altar of country and Empire, for, we realise that because they in their day endured the privations of an awful war, we in our day are permitted to live in security and peace. I therefore ask space i'n your paper to protest against such designation of our leaders of advanced thinking, and among them our respected soldier citizens, as "irresponsibles." —I am, etc.,

HARVEY C. C. RIDDLE. Aria, November 6, 1935.