WAR RECORD STATED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 15 October 1941, Page 4

WAR RECORD STATED

REPLY TO CRITIC'S J Reflections wii ch have been made in : j recent limes on the loyalty to public I servants were replied to by the Prime | Minister. Mr Fraser, and the president* «<i the New Zealand Public Sei /ice I Association, Mr T. Pound, Wellington. 1 ■ i their addres e at the op<-:4tc of Hie annual conference of the e*®ltive •■ouned of the association yeSfcay. * iinar Khayyam's saying, "They Come like water; like wind they go,” was eommended to the conference by Mr Fraser in connection with “most resolutions passed by most organisations '.’.lnch take themselves too seriously.” Mr Pound said that in his opinion there was no warrant for resolutions by individuals and organisation: reflecting on the loyalty of the Public Service. The public servants did not admit that these individuals had a tin nopoly of loyalty themselves. During the past two years the association had put £7500 into Government and war loans, and he thought he could say members had done wonderful work for patriotic purposes. Early in the war members had decided to' start a patriotic fund o f their own by deducting a small amount from salaries monthly. The association itself made a donation of £SOO to the patriotic funds, and from its own -und it had paid over £IO.OOO into the National Patriotic Fund, and was increasing that at the rate of £6OO a montl . MEMBERS WITH THE FORCES However, all this was as nothing compared with the sacrifice made by more than 3000. or 17 per cent of the association’s members who were with' the fighting forces overseas. That figure did not include those in the ‘ Territorial service or on home defence. "We don't want any credit for what we arc doing in this connection,” Mr 1 Pound added. "We are prepared, like the rest of the community, to give and n count the cost. But if it is to be one or the other, credit or criticism, then we think it ought to be credit.” Mr Fraser said he did not know to what organisations the president referred. as he had been out of the country recently. People had a great weak- . ness for passing resolutions. Some or-j ganisations never felt that they had I justified their existence until they had passed one resolution and then they . got into “resolutionary” habits. Mr Fraser recalled that years ago he had told one organisation that its resolution had filled the dustbins of the Dominion, and it was still going, or doing it. On the other hand, one sometimes wished that his opponent woul ’ pass a resolution so that he could get a key to his outlook. Some resolutions had to be taken seriously,; but some were so unreasonable that they should just be duly noted and sometimes conveniently lost.