LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION SOUTHLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 27

LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION SOUTHLAND

TO THE EDITOB Sir, —My attention has been drawn to a letter in your issue of May 28 over the signature of J. P. Dakin. In that letter Mr Dakin “ wishes to tell the people of Southland that those in control of the Southland branch of the League of Nations Union will not publish detailed and duly audited balance sheets of their branch and he goes on to say, “I have endeavoured on more than one occasion in the past to induce the local president to publish such balance sheets, but without success. Why? ” Those statements, Sir, are absolutely false. The facts are that each year the branch holds its annual meeting in public, after public advertisement, and the meeting is always fully reported in the local press. At that meeting a detailed and duly-audited balance sheet is always presented and adopted. The treasurer of the branch is Mr George Featherstone, senior partner of the well-known Invercargill firm of public accountants, Messrs Featherstone, Adamson and Francis. The auditor is Mr R. N. Todd, equally well known and of indisputable integrity. The first president of the union was the late Mr William Macalister, ex-Crown Prosecutor; he was succeeded by Mr C. A. Stewart, M.A., director of the Invercargill Technical College, and I have the honour to be the present occupant of that office. The honorary secretary is Mr George Hill, M.A., of the Southland Technical College. Such names are themselves a sufficient answer to Mr Dakin.

Furthermore, Mr Dakin has been both publicly, and more than once privately, invited to attend our meetings, which are always held in public, and where full public discussion is always openly invited. So far, he has never availed himself of that opportunity or acknowledged the invitation. If Mr Dakin wanted a copy of the balance sheet he could most certainly have got it by applying to our ever-courteous treasurer, though, not being a member, he is not actually entitled to it. This statement of the facts, Sir, is, I 'take it, a full and complete refutation of Mr Dakin’s unworthy and groundless insinuation. His procedure in seeking to broadcast through a northern paper matter which the local papers, knowing the facts and the persons implicated, would never have accepted for publication, is, to say the least, extraordinary. In Invercargill we know and respect Mr Dakin, and are accustomed to his frequent letters to the editor. Generally, his outbursts are amusing, but are not taken at all seriously. Libellous insinuations, however, such as that broadcast through your columns on May 28, are another matter. Criticism we invite: libel we will not tolerate.

May I also, Sir, express surprise at your publication of such a letter without first ascertaining the correctness of the serious statements made in It? I can only assume that it was an Inadvertence.—l am. etc., Cecil J. Tocker, President, Southland L.N.U. St. Paul’s Manse. Invercargill, May 31,