PUBLIC SERVANTS’ PRIVILEGES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21648, 19 May 1932, Page 6

PUBLIC SERVANTS’ PRIVILEGES.

The withdrawal by the Government of its recognition of the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association will entail the loss by members of the association of certain privileges, two or three -B ...u:„i, „t«,.« Alci-i-nntUr valnnhla.

of which were distinctly vaiuapie. Chief among them was the right enjoyed by the association of representing to the department and the Ministry the case of the. employees included in its membership. It can only have been under an exceedingly strong sense of the impropriety of action taken by the association that the Government has subjected it to a denial of this right. Apparently a position had arisen which was felt by the Government to be "intolerable." It may be surmised that this was due partly to the affiliations into which the association has thought fit to enter with organisations that are undisguisedly political in their character and, partly, to the license which is claimed by the organ of the association in its discussion of political issues. The animadversions that have been made on the Government by officials and representatives of the Association have been marked by a freedom that waa wholly out of place. Nor have .they been excused by the fact that they have been encouraged by the parliamentary opponents of the Government. The truth is that the active connection of any body of public servants with a political organisation and the active participation of public servants in politics betray an entirely erroneous conception of the obligations of employees of the State. Public servants occupy positions in which it; is important that they should abstain from association with political organisations, The confidence of the community in them rests on the assumption of their integrity and fidelity. It is especially important that members of the post and telegraph service, who necessarily, in the course of their duties,, handle documents of .the most : confidential nature, should be free from the slightest suspicion of a political bias that might, conceivably, affect their trustworthiness. It may be in. a rather abrupt and rude way Government has reminded the members p£ the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association; of ; the' duty which. ihey owe to the positions ;they hold,' but' the withdrawal of recognition r . from . th fl association : will probably prove, to be entirely warranted. It should serve, moreover, as a useful warning to other public service organisations that there are limits beyond which their activities should not be carried. . •'•,.-:.,•■:•