CORPORATE ACTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 15

CORPORATE ACTION

ROTARY MOVEMENT POLITICS AND RELIGION DEBATE AT CONFERENCE The attitude of the Rotary movement in regard to questions of politics and religion was discussed by delegates to the New Zealand Rotary District Conference at the final session yesterday, when a debate was held on "Should Rotary Lead?" "There is a certain section of Rotary in New Zealand and elsewhere which pays 'no politics and no religion,' " said Mr. L. G. K. Steven, president of the Christchurch Rotary Club, who took the affimativc. "Yet there is also a decided opinion throughout Rotary that we cannot afford to exclude everything to do with religion and politics." Mr. Steven said institutions such as Rotary should and must steer clear of such political questions as would have a disruptive influence within the institution. Xhere were, however, many social questions on which a Rotary club should be able to make valuable contributions of thought and consideration, because of the fact that the public recognised the movement as a body apart from ordinary political questions, but deeply interested in the social wellbeing of the community. "Rotary should be prepared, when occasions arise, to take a stand and make pronouncements on matters which affect the welfare and the well-being of humanity, the nation, or the community in which it finds itself," concluded Mr. Steven, after quoting numerous authorities in support oi action by Rotary. Mr. H. T. Thomas, of the Auckland Club, took the negative side in the absence of Mr. W. D. Campbell, of the Timaru Club. "1 do not believe that with all its power and efficioncy Rotary could stand for five minutes the withering blast of political or religious controversy," he said. Referring to religious questions, Mr. Thomas said that if any attempt was made by Jlotary to lead in religion it would bo resented by the Church to begin with, and by individual Rotarians throughout the world, for the philosophy of Rotary only required a man to be loyal and true to his own religious convictions. If Rotary was too complex an organisation to take action in political and religious questions, there was no surer way of destroying it than by endeavouring to take corporate action in the world of international politics and on religious questions.