R.S.A. REQUEST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 May 1943, Page 5

R.S.A. REQUEST

SEAT ON JOINT COUNCIL REPLY BY MINISTER The question of the representation of the Auckland Returned Services Association on the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society is the subject of a letter from the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr W. E. Parry. He reminds the association that the Joint Council was set up by an Act of Parliament which gives the Government no control over its membership. Mr Parry continues: “On March 23 I forwarded to you a further reply from the Joint Council, in which this body offered you" a position as an associate member. You now decline this and demand full representation on the committee. I think your association is entirely unreasonable in its action, -and I regret that I am unable to take any further action on your behalf. I have referred copies of your correspondence to the New Zealand Returned Services Association, as, if this matter is to be carried any further, I think it should be done from the New Zealand angle and not from a provincial one.

“The Government is always glad to assist and also glad of the assistance of the many societies carrying out humanitarian work in this Dominion,” the Minister adds, “but it cannot, at the request of other societies, interfere with the internal management and control of these bodies unless some extraordinary action on their part makes it advisable for the safeguarding of the welfare of the people of the Dominion.”