SOLDIERS AND POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17295, 20 October 1919, Page 6

SOLDIERS AND POLITICS.

INTENTION OF CONSTITUTION

[BY TELEGRAPH. — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Sunday.

Reference to political action was made at the conference of the Returned Soldiers' Association last evening. In connection with a remit from Auckland proposing that the constitution should be altered to permit of political action, the Organisation and Legal Committee had been asked to define the term "non-political" which appears in a clause of the constitution. The committee reported last evening that the word was not capable of a strict definition in the legal sense. In the absence of an interpretation of the clause, the committee considered that the intention of the framers of' the constitution must be inferred to be that the exertion of influence upon the Legislature by direct or indirect means was not intended to be included so long as no action was taken to affect the personnel of the House of Representatives. Mr. E. W. Leadley {Christchurch) said that the submission of questions to political candidates would interfere with th.B personnel of the House. Thev were satisfied in their own minds as 'to what the word -political" meant. The committee's report was adopted.